
Qass. 
Book 






T h: E 



GIBBET OF REGINA 



THE TRUTH ABOUT RIEL 



/&0 



SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD AND HIS CABINET 
BEFORE PUBLIC OPINION 

BY 




THOMPSON & MOREAU, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
51 AND 53 Maiden Lane 

1886 






Copyright, 1886, by Thompson & Moreau, New York. 



/V-- 



1 



cj 



^5 



PREFACE 



New York, November 17th, 1885. 
My Dear Mr. Thompson : — 

All is over ! 

Louis David Riel is no more ! 
^ Universal history counts in its pages a new bloody- 

episode. 

Henceforth the 16th day of November, 1885, will 
be for French Canadians the date of the basest in- 
sult ever inflicted upon their nationality, their race, 
their faith and their dignity. 

Humanity and civilization have been laughed at 
and odiously outraged by Sir John A. MacDonald 
and his Cabinet. Justice has been baffled ! Orange- 
ism has won the day. You were still doubting a 
few days ago that the fiendish hatred of the mephis- 
tophelic Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada 
would dare follow to the end his mortal designs 
against Riel. To-day, doubt is no longer possible ; 
Riel has paid with his head his ardent love for his 
country. 

You have asked me to put down in writing some 
facts I mentioned to you in our last conversation. 

Be it so ! 

You will find in the manuscript herewith, my 
frank and candid opinion on this painful affair, and 
the narration of facts I have witnessed during the 
five years I lived in Manitoba, 

Use what I now send you to the best of your 
judgment, and whatever you do with it, rest assured 
that I am only loo happy to join my voice to the 
general imprecation aroused by the brutal execution 
of the French Half-breed Louis David Riel. 

Very respectfully, 

One Who Knows. 

To the American pxihlic : 

The above letter I received a few days after Eiel's 
execution. Like a great number, I had hoped against 
hope, that what has taken place could, and would have 



4 — 



been avoided. But, it appears, that every friend of jus- 
tice and humanity was fated to a sad disappointment ; 
none could have anticipated that blind hatred would have 
prevailed against the unbiassed and unanimous opinion of 
the whole civilized world. 

After a careful reading, I decided to publish, in the 
form of a book, the manuscript referred to, because it is 
based upon undeniable facts ; because those facts and 
occurrences are vouchsafed for by men who have closely 
followed the transformation of the Canadian North-west 
into a conglomerant of the Dominion of Canada. 

These pages, to be sure, are written with great vehe- 
mence of language ; but, how could it be otherwise ? The 
writer saw, felt and comprehended. Suavity of language 
could not adequately have painted criminality organize( 
into a system. 

Be that as it may, the American reader — conscien- 
tious, searching and logical by nature — will find, in these 
pages, matter to reflect upon. 

On the one hand, he will find short-sighted policy, 
criminal indifference and cowardly animosity, all com- 
bined to crush vested riojhts, io^nore solemn and oft- 
repeated pledges, and violate all those principles of 
humanity that are recognized and respected by all nations 
having any claim to be called civilized. 

On the other hand, the American reader will find an 
isolated and circumscribed, but spirited race — the victim 
of unmitigated outrages and base misrepresentations — 



5 — 



fighting against large odds for the revendication of their 
rights and the protection of their homes and families, 

Far from me the thought of making any invidious 
observation to the American public about i\\Q prima facie 
similitude between AVashington and Eiel's career. 

Both were apostles of human rights! Both were 
arrayed against the same secular arbitrarism! Both 
fought the same implacable despotism ! 

But here the similitude ceases ! And why ? 

Because Washington fought and conquered with the 
help of Frenchmen ! 

And because Eiel succumbed, and was defeated by 
the help of an American Administration ! 

How consoling to be able to logically remark : That 
governments are invariably responsible to the people, but 
that the people are not invariably responsible for their 
government ? 



■X- 



In the presence of a freshly sealed coffin, words of 
bitterness, to be sure, are out of place. But I beg to ask 
you, Americans, when you were struggling for existence ; 
when, later on, piratical expeditions were organized and 
launched from the Canadian frontier (with the knowledge 
of Sir John A. MacDonald, who was then, as he is now, 
the Premier of the Canadian Cabinet) against peaceable 
American villages ; when you called to arms, not alone 
your native-born citizens, but all mankind, in the defence 



-6 



of the grandest political institutions known to ancient 
and modern times, who answered your cry of alarm ? 

Assuredly not the men represented by the party in 
power at Ottawa, to whom President Cleveland has so 
courteously given the right of way on American soil, for 
the transportation of arras and ammunition, in order to 
enable the bitterest enemies of the United States to anni- 
hilate the Half-breeds who were following in the foot- 
steps of yonr forefathers ! 

To one misguided Orangeman, or, better, to one 
strayed Tory disciple of Sir John A. MacDonald — wJio 
was omnipotent at Ottawa then as he is to-day — that 
fought for the preservation of this glorious Republic, 
thousands of sympathetic French Canadians can be named, 
who nobly and disinterestedly upheld the flag. The 
conflict made tombs in our nationality, and we are proud of 
it. Your flnal success threw dismay in the ofticial circles 
at Ottawa, as well as in the ranks of Orangeism ; but an 
American Administration has just been found to assuage 
Toryism bitter disappointment by making amends for all 
that! 

What is all the trouble about ? Let us take a retro- 
spective view of the matter. 

f The French Canadians discovered and settled the 
country they live in. Embroiled in a struggle not of 
their seeking, and over which they had no control, they 



a 



,1! 






were shamefully abandoned and finally sacrificed to the / 
sensual proclivities of a king who had more love for the 
gown of a courtezan than for the flag of France. Not 
withstanding, they secured, first by treaty, and comi 
pelled, later on, through legislation, the granting of all 
those rights which Riel and his Half-breed brothers 
sought to revendieate, because tliey had been systematically 
trampled upon by the Ottawa Cabinet. 

The Half-breeds are the descendants of those hardy 
French Canadian pioneers, _wlioseloye_of.irareLan.dJ' '^'^/^t 
discovery, took them into the wild prairies of the l^orth- I 
west, where they finally settled into a semi-hunting and 
semi-agricultural life — following, in this last occupation, 
the customs and the idiosyncracies of their ancestors, who 
had made a garden of both banks of the St. Lawrence. 

These Half-breeds belong to that race of energetic 
men who were the first settlers of the Western States, 
at a time when colonizing in tliose wild prairies meant 
something more than breaking the ground and raising a 
crop for shipment to Eastern ports ; moreover, they are 
the kindred of these courageous pioneers who have either 
christened or given their own names to the most impor- 
tant cities of the West. I 

They are acknowledged to be a hospitable, mild, peace- 
able and law-abiding people. -SeLfiehnt^gJs unknown to f )^ 
their vocabulary ; with them, faithfulness, providency | 
and thrift are heirlooms which have never been bartered 
by the humblest of the race. 



Like the French Canadians, they were settled upon a 
soil which their ancestors had discovered and fertilized 
with the sweat of their brows. Like yourselves, foreign to 
^11 sentiments of jealousy, they invited all men of good- 
will to settle in their midst, with the moral and legisla- 
tive guarantee that uprightness, irrespective of creed or 
nationality, was all that the State sought for; and, morally 
and constitutionally, the State has no business nor right to 
seek for anything else. 

When we, French Canadians, sent out such a generous 
and untrammelled invitation, we did not expect, nor did 
we have in view, to borrow the prejudices, the intolerance 
and the rancors of past ages. This vast continent has 
no room for such cast-off clothes. 

But, what did we get in return, for our broad and 
generous hospitality? 

An arrogant and dictatorial oligarchy, bent on pervert- 
ing the sacred aims of justice and legislation. And who, 
with the view of making itself omnipotent, transplanted 
to our virgin soil, hatred as repulsive as it was unnatural; 
excited, between co-existing races, national animosity ; 
concocted intolerance of creeds, and finally, to crown its 
diabolical monument of infamy, exacted the head of a son 
of the soil who had had the temerity to protect, against 
oft-admitted unjustifiable spoliation, the roofs that shelter- 
ed his countrymen and his own family. 



* 



Those are the men to whom — when on the eve of 
receiving a well-merited castigation for all their misdeeds 
— an American Administration has given aid and comfort. 

All fair minded people acknowledge that States, 
like individuals, owe each other a goodly amount of 
courtesy in their intercourse ; but, I have yet to learn, 
that the footpad has any claim in his criminal undertak- 
ing, upon the assistance of the respectably disposed, or 
that a government that has put itself beyond the pale of , 
civilization — as the Canadian Govern^ment did by 
luring and then defrauding the Half-breeds of their / 
legitimate inheritance — has any claim in its nefarious / 
and sanguinary policy upon the courtesy of a government 
or of a people which it has done its utmost to destroy at 
the most critical time in its history. 

I am somewhat inclined to think that, in this instance, 
the good faith of the American Administration has been 
surprised ; but it is as well that, in case of possible future 
emergencies, the situation should be elucidated, in order 
to avoid a repetition of any such intemperate awkward- 
ness on the part of the Executive. 



My American readers will readily understand why I 
kave thought proper to publish The Truth About Kiel. 
It will be a revelation to many, who could not, on account 
of the system of misrepresentations and calumnies inaugu- 



— 10 — 

rated by the Canadian Cabinet, and circulated broadcast 
by its paid agents, form a candid opinion upon the merit 
of the question at issue ; — I say at issue advisedly, because 
the question of the status of the Half-breeds in Manitoba 
and the Saskatchewan is far from being settled. So far, 
the only thing settled^ as it were, is the future of Sir John 
A. MacDonald's Cabinet. 

Be that as it may, 1 will consider myself amply repaid 
for all trouble, if through my instrumentality the truth is 
known about a race who lias been unmercifully calum- 
niated after having been mercilessly persecuted ; about a 
chivalrous leader who was immolated on the scaffold in 
order to satisfy the insatiable cravings for blood of an 
Order which has been, from its incipiencv, a blot upon 
civilization and a putrefactions sore upon mankind — 
an immolation which was accomplished in spite of the 
indignant clamor of every being imbued with conscience, 
justice and uprightness. 






To my Canadian friends of all origins : 

A word of supplication ! 

An unjustifiable outrage has been committed upon a 
whole race. It behooves all good and well-thinking men, 
irrespective of origin or creed, to band together, and see 
hat justice is done. 



fykhk 



— 11 — 

The disgrace bears equally upon all, hence the neces- 
sity of a combined effort to wipe out the stain. 

Riel and the Half-breeds did not rebel against the 
established institutions of the country while those insti- 
tutions were legally and justly administered. Goaded 
and famished, they rebelled against a set of unscrupulous 
jobbers and thieves, who were administering the country 
for their own personal benefit and for the benefit of their 
minions, with whom they divided the spoils. 

Sir John's Cabinet and his satellites have done more 
by omission and commission to bring into contempt your 
institutions, than any well-regulated Orange lodge has 
ever done to break the peace in your very midst. 

To wipe out the stain, to avert and put at naught all 
possibilities of direful complications, the ill-omened 
thirteen Ministers must be hurled from the responsible 
positions which they have betrayed so shamefully. 

Your country is exceptionally situated. It cannot pros- 
per and it cannot march onward in the path of progress, 
with men at its head, who, derelict to well-understood 
conservatism, single out a race and a creed, and oifer 
it as a holocaust to its sworn enemy ! 

Such men liave incapacitated themselves for any 
position of trust, or of responsibility, in a country situated 
and populated like yours. 

They are a constant dangei-, an impending menace ! 

Already, two of them, realizing the depth of the 
abyss they had dug for all their future political aspira- 



12 



tions, have attempted extra-parliamentary explanations. 
Mutism before, verbosity after, the deed I 
Men of that calibre should not be kicked out, shoving 

is good enough for them. 

But all honest men must see that it is done. 



•X- 



To the French Canadians : 

What must be said of the three French Canadian 
Ministers who are named Langevin, Caroii^ Chapleauf 

The two first wear the English livery, they were 

made baronets; and the last what a place in such a 

trio for the bearer of the French cross of the Legion of 
Honor ! 

What a touching spectacle, that of Chapleau, wearing 
the French cross of the Legion of Honor while signing 
the death-warrant of his countryman Riel — a death- 
warrant which was exacted from him by Orangemen, the 
deadly enemies of his race ! 

Decorated — alas ! like too many others — through pure 
complacency, Chapleau inwardly felt the necessity of 
accomplishing some kind of remarkable deed in order to 
justify his sponsors for having put his name forward for 
the decoration. 

How pleasant will be the surprise of those sponsors, 
on meeting tlieir protege, to find him wearing another 



_ 13 — 

trinket at his buttonhole, a fringed piece of the rope 
that strangled his countryman Kiel ! There's luck in the 
hangman's rope ! However, Chapleau can justify of this 
second decoration in more than one way : He was the 
signer of the death-warrant, and his brother was the ex- 
ecutioner 1 This is rather too much honor for one single 
family ! 

If this was not already too disgusting, matters could still 
be flavored in that respect, by hoisting the elder Chapleau 
by one notch in the Legion of Honor, and by pinning a 
rosette to the lappel of the younger brother's coat! 

Or, better still, Chapleau might be struck from the 
roll of the Legion of Honor, which was not founded, 
that I am aware, to reward and encourage ^"i^ench^ 
traitors ! 

But, this is not exactly the place nor the time for 
such recriminations. Therefore, I will leave to patriotic 
French journalists the task of requesting from the proper 
authority a categorical explanation about all this dirty 
linen. In so far as the French Canadians are concerned, if 
no better judgment is shown in the distribution of the 
distinctions of the French Legion of Honor in our country, 
we will be forced to the unavoidable conclusion that an 
attempt is on foot to make that Order a rival of the 
celebrated Kogues' Gallery of New York ! 



* 
* * 



— 14 — 

" Close- the-ranks," must be your watch- word. In order 
to present a solid front, former political divisions must be 
set aside in the presence of your arrogant, persistent and 
unscrupulous foe. 

The organisation of your forces must be thorough and 
permanent. Your enemies have declared already, with a 
contemptuous smile, that a pittance thrown to the Pro- 
vince of Quebec by the Ottawa Government, will smother 
your indignation. 

Your programme mast be — 

First. — Constitutional agitation must not cease until 
you have relegated to oblivion the ministerial miscreants 
who are responsible for all the mischief. 

Second. — The Half -breeds must be reinstated in the 
lands of which they have b3en despoiled, and indemnified 
just hke the sufferers of 1837-38. 

Third. — The Orange Order, which is a menace not 
only to your faith, your tongue and your nationality, but 
which is a menace to law and order, which is incompatible 
with the ordinary decency of any well governed com- 
munity, must be made to understand that it has to stand 
back. Your only guarantee is to have laws enacted 
disqualifying its votaries from the franchise and from 
holding any official position under 

1st. Your local government; 

2d. Your municipal system, and 

3d. In the Federal government. 

Communities have the inherent right of enacting 



— 15 — 

laws for their protection. Dogs' ferocity is the subject 
of salutary enactments by all municipal bodies, why 
should not Orange madness be placed on the same plane? 

If, through constitutional agitation, you cannot secure 
these safeguards or their full equivalent, you have no 
right to remain in the Federation of the Provinces. 

Your enemies, emboldened by this fresh triumph, will 
not only continue their work of persecution, and make 
you lead a life of abjection, but they will, in the course 
of a very short time, legislate your race into insignilicance 
and complete dependence. 

Gratitude with them is an unknown quantity. Look 
at the treatment you have met at the hands of Sir John 
A. MacDonald, after more than thirty years of unstinted 
support from the French Conservative element of your 
population, to which he owes everything, even the oppor- 
tunity of betraying you ! 

No, either through persuasiveness or compi'omise, you 
have nothing to expect from that quarter. The time of 
temporizing is past ; that of exacting lias come ! And 
you must exact with hrmness and dignity ; but, be on 
your guard, because you are dealing with a cunning and 
cowardly foe. 

If you show determination and firmness the perpe- 
trators of the atrocities in Manitoba and the Saskatche- 
wan ; the builders of the Regina gibbet, wiU meet their 



— IB — 

deserts ; yon will be considered ; you will enjoj, un- 
molested, the reward of patriotism, the fruits of your 
labor, and transmit, to your children, unimpaired and 
unscathed, the inheritance left you by your valorous 
fathers : A free and liberty-loving country, where peace 
and happiness dwelleth. 

You have not only the sympathies of the civilized 
world, hut potential cwilizing elements side loith you^ 
and will give you comfort in your time of need. 

"Do your duty, and fear not ! " 

One of yours, 

Napoleon Thompson. 



New York, January, 1886. 



THE 



TROTH ABOUT RIEL. 



THE TRUTH ABOUT KIEL. 



A great many people, imperfectly acquainted with 
what they were talking or writing about, have freely ex- 
pressed opinions regarding RieFs fate. 

It would be difficult, almost impossible indeed, for 
any one who has not been closely connected with what 
took place in the North-western territory, to see clearly 
into the intricate state of affairs that has convulsed that 
portion of British America since the Metis' outbreak ; 
which had its prologue in 1S69, and its epilogue in 1885, 
in the hanging of Eiel, the recognized leader of the P^rench 
Half-breeds. 

In order to satisfy my readers that I have some right 
to express my opinion on this gloomy subject, I will 
remark that I have lived in the North-west from 1809 to 
1871:, and through the official position I then occupied in 
that country, under the Canadian Government, I was 
directly connected with almost everything that took 
place in Manitoba during that period of five years. I 



— 20 — 

go as far as to say that during that time I was often called 
upon to give, in an official capacity, my views on some 
verj^ important administrative questions ; and, as what 
follows is only an exact and impartial narration of facts, 
completely devoid of any personal preference or feeling, 
I think the honesty of purpose which prompts me to 
write this book will not be doubted. 

I have heard and seen all I am about to relate. 1 
have taken part in many of the events herein narrated, 
and I leave to the world the task of forming a judgment 
upon the course pursued by the Ministers of the Domin- 
ion Government in their policy regarding the French 
Half-breeds, and to decide if the Canadian Ministers are 
or are not responsible, not only for the unjust and bar- 
barous execution of the Half-breed Louis David Kiel, 
but also for the criminal inertness that has caused it. 

CAN RIEL BE CHARGED WITH REBELLION f 

There cannot be the least doubt that Kiel has been 
a continual source of annoyance and anxiety to the Do- 
minion Cabinet, since 1869, but was he to blame for that'^ 
Was he an inveterate and systematic revolutionist, or a 
man who, conscious of his rights as a British subject and 
a free human being, would not allow himself and his 
countrymen to be unmercifully trampled upon by the 
iron heel of the Canadian rulers ? 

Was his death on the scaffold, erected by the order of 



— 21-- 

Sir Jolin A. MacDonald and his Cabinet, a deserved and 
just expiation, or was it a crime coldly prepared and 
perpetrated to serve personal and political purposes? 

Without pretending to impose mj opinion about this 
lugubrious affair, nor expecting to change the face of 
things in Canada, the publication of what I know, will, 
nevertheless, I most sincerely hope, throw a different and 
a new light on the events that have taken place in 
Manitoba and in the Saskatchewan from 1868 to 1885. 

HOW WERE THE METIS TREATED FOR YEARS? 

The Metis have indeed been an ill-fated race for 
many years. For a long time before the purchase, in 1869, 
of the territorial rights, by the Canadian Government, 
from the Company of Adventui'ers of England (better 
known as the Hudson Bay Company), they were the 
direct means of the making of that immense and incal- 
culable fortune which placed the Hudson Bay Company 
at the head of the most powerful corporations in existence. 

Hunting and trapping was their only resource. The 
stores of the numerous posts of the Company were at all 
times overflowing with valuable skins brought in by the 
Half-breeds. The rich furs of every description were 
bought by the Company's officers at ridiculously low prices ; 
the trading scheme was carried on in a most lively man- 
ner : a bank-note, a few pounds of flour or salt pork, a small 
keg of gunpowder and shot, a common suit of clothes 



— 22 — 

^ or an incomplete outfit could secure a quantity of valuable 
skins worth one hundred times the trifling cost of the 
articles given in exchange, and the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany was able to supj^ly yearly all the European markets 
with immense quantities of furs thus bartered from the 
poor victimized Metis. 

I This, taken in a certain light, was, of course, very natural 

and nothing more nor less than a straight business trans- 
action. But when that wide and rich country became 
exhausted, when the buffalo had almost completely disap- 
peared, when the otter, marten, beaver, ermine and all 
the other fur-bearing animals of its regions were becom- 
ing scarcer every year, the Hudson Bay Company's authori- 
ties thought of ridding themselves of their no longer 
valuable possessions by selling their territorial rights to the 
Canadian Government, and the transfer was accomplish- 
ed without the knowledge of the Metis. 

They were only Half-breeds after all ! Why should 
the Government or the Hudson Bay Company take the 
trouble of apprising them that they had been sold and 
bought like live-stock i 
. But this simple, inoffensive and peaceful people 
understood tliat no Government, no power on earth had 
the right to buy a population composed of Christians 
like a lot of living beasts ! They instinctively saw danger 
for their homes, their wives and children in that arbitrary 
Canadian invasion ; they perceived that their rights, as 
men living on free American soil, had been ignored 



— 23 — 

and violated. Riel, whose education and natural intelli-j 
gence liad placed him foremost among his fellow-country- 
men, was chosen as their leader, and the entire Metis 
population took up arms to prevent the Canadian 
Government from entering the country. 

Mr. McDougall, the first Lieutenant-Governor ap- 
pointed by the Dominion Cabinet, was stopped with his \ 
staff at Pembina, and was obliged to retreat and return to 
Ottawa without even seeing the seat of his government. ' 

Was Kiel a rebel then ? If so, it must be confessed 
that his rebellion had a noble and generous aim : that of 
defending the land of his birth against an unwarranted 
invasion ; of protecting his countrymen, his sister and 
mother, nay his father's grave, against an arrogant enemy ! 

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 

A Provisional Government was formed by the Half- 
breeds and took its seat at Fort Garry. Eiel was 
unanimously elected President. Resolutions were passed, 
engrossed and presented to the Canadian Cabinet. These 
Resolutions did not received the least attention. 



THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 

By this time the Cabinet of the Dominion plainly 
saw that something had to be done. An expedition 



\ 



24 



was decided upon, and four thousand men were soon 
ready to start for Manitoba. 

The expeditionary corps was composed of a regiment 
of regulars, a battahon of Quebec rifles, a battalion 
of Ontario rifles, a sufficient number of engineers, and 
a complete commissariat. 

Colonel Wolselej, afterwards Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
and now Lord Wolseley, was appointed Commander in 
Chief of that military piaiic, which was called the Eed 
Eiver Expedition. After making a considerable number 
of portages and running numerous rapides he landed in 
Winnipeg with his troops at the end of August, 1870. 

Kiel and his followers had left Fort Garry and the 
British territory before the gallant Colonel's arrival, 
probably because they felt that their cause was a lost one, 
or, perhaps, because the young leader recoiled at the idea 
of exposing his country and his people to the horrors of 
a long and bloody civil war. However, Colonel Wolseley 
found that Fort Garry had been abandoned by the Metis, 
and the flrst thing he did after arriving in Manitoba 
was to issue a proclamation, apprising the population of 
the Province that he intended to deal unmercifully with 
the banditti {sic) who had dared to resist the authority of 
his Gracious Sovereign, the Queen of England. 

And thus ended the Red River Expedition, which 
cost several millions of dollars to the Government that 
ordered it. But, of coui-se, for the accomplishment of so 
glorious an undertaking money was no object ! Were not 



— 25 — 

the good Canadians rich enough to pay, without mur- 
muring, for what has since proved to be a sinister 
blunder ? Taxes came in more regularly than ever. It 
was the people's money that was paying for the fun, and, 
most painful to say, French Canadians were made to 
help with their money a military expedition organized 
for the purpose of pitilessly oppressing their Half-breed 
brothers in Manitoba. 

These heroic Half-breeds, these simple but honest 
sons of the wild prairies, who had formed a defen- 
sive alliance in order to protect their country, their 
wives and children, their own blood in fact, were called 
"banditti" by the representative of the very govern- 
ment that had bought them as the planters of yore 
bought a plantation with all the human flesh on it ! 

ON TO THEM! KILL THEM ! 

And here are the wonderful arguments put forward 
by Sir John A. MacDonald and his Cabinet ; 

These contemptible half savages, who knew nothing 
but to hunt, and whose too slavish hands had been for 
years the gigantic and inexhaustible cornucopia that filled 
the large and numberless coffers of a company of adven- 
turers from England, had had the audacity to protest like 
men against the violation of their so-called rights ! 

These ignorant half Indians, these French Metis, as 
they called themselves, who could but fervently pray to 



— 2C — 

their God, tenderly love their families, and live without 
ever thinking of doing any harm to their neighbors, had 
dared to reject the protectorate of a government which, 
after their submission, would be only too willing to throw 
to them a small piece of land, like a bone to a famished 
dog ! 

They were only despicable human beings after all, 
and they had the impudence to reject this opportunity of 
being blessed by the contact of an iron-handed civilization ! 

What a monstrosity ! 

No pity for them ! 

Christ died for all and every man : what of it ? 
They w^ere made in the image of their Savior, it is true, 
but they were only ignorant beasts ! 

Bring them to submission, not by kind words or per- 
suasion, but by force ; they must bend or break ! 

On to them ! Shoot them down like wild and fero- 
cious animals ! Kill them! 

And after the bloody work of civilization is done, if 
S(jme of the remaining miscreants dare to refuse homage 
to our benevolent Sovereign, a few planks, a rope, and 
the sheriff will do the rest ! 

A PAMPHLET. 

A few months before the Red River Expedition was 
organized, a much to be regretted occurrence took place 
in the Province of Quebec. 



s 

f 




'His Grace Mgr. Alexandre Antonin Tache. 



— 27 — 

The Right Reverend Alexander Tache, then Bishop 
of St. Boniface (Manitoba), and since elevated to the 
archbishopric, published a pamphlet in which lie strongly 
advised the young French Canadians not to take any 
active part in the projected campaign : The soil of 
Manitoba was a poor one, offering but little chance for 
improvement, the rebellion had not a serious character, 
and all the trouble would soon end, etc., etc., etc. 

This pamphlet, containing such or similar advice, 
emanating from a most and jnstly venerated prelate, was 
freely distributed among French Canadians, and mostly 
all of the Catholic priests, in the Province of Quebec, 
preached and recommended to their parishioners the ad- 
visability of following the worthy Bishop's counsel. 

The effect of the pamphlet can easily be imagined. 
When the recruiting of the two battalions of volunteers 
began, a comparatively small number of French Cana- 
dians were enlisted. These battalions, each about 600 
strong (1,200 in all), did not count in their ranks, when 
formed, over 150 French Canadians, that is to say, eighty- 
eight per cent, of the effective volunteer force were Eng- 
lish Canadians, mostly from Ontario. 

Each and every one of these men was to receive, as 
compensation, 160 acres of land, after the expiration of 
his military term, and ninety per cent, of them settled 
in Manitoba. Thus the British element dominated in 
the Province after its submission, and it has been so ever 
since 1870. 



— 28 — 

It is not in the least probable that Archbishop Tache 
ever thought for an instant that his pamphlet would 
have such a lamentable effect against his own people, 
and far from me any idea of blame or reproach for the 
venerable Bishop's action. I sincerely believe it was 
dictated to him by a commendable conviction, but one 
'thing is certain, indisputable : Manitoba and the Sas- 
katchewan have been from the start, are yet, and will 
remain under the complete control of Canadians of 
English origin, and that portion of the Dominion is lost 
for ever to the French Canadian supremacy. 

Here comes naturally two questions which would be 
very hard to answer, but offering, nevertheless, a wide 
field for reflection : Had the Province of Manitoba been 
ruled by a strong majority of the French Canadian 
element, would the last insurrection have taken place ? 
And, if it had taken place, would Riel have mounted the 
scaffold at Regina f 

I leave to the intelligence of the eminent and patriotic 
French Canadian politicians the care of meditating over 
these questions, and of finding a plausible solution to 
them. 

THOMAS SCOTT. 

The execution of Thomas Scott, ordered in 1869 by 
the Provisional Government of Manitoba, has been the 
chief accusation brought against Riel by Upper Canada. 



39 



Scott was an Orangeman, and his co-religionists have 
found in his execution inexhaustible food for their hatred 
against French Canadians, or anything that is Catholic. 
The merciless pressure they have exercised over Sir John 
A. MacDonald, previous to Kiel's execution, is convincing 
evidence that the fanaticism and bigotry so bitterly re- 
proached to Catholics in Canada, are far more intense 
among Orangemen, who have never as yet lost an occasion 
to manifest it loudly ! 

SELF-DEFENCE. 

Thomas Scott was far from being the good natured 
sort of a fellow his Orange friends have tried to make 
believe. On the contrary, he was a rough character. He 
had treatened Kiel's life on several occasions and he was 
certaiidy known as capable of carrying his threats into 
execution. I know as a positive fact that Kiel himself 
was opposed to Scott's execution, even after the sentence 
had been pronounced. I know also that he tried his 
utmost to save him, but his intervention was accorded 
no attention by his followers. 

All those who knew Scott well (and I have been 
brought into contact with many of them) agree in saying 
that Kiel's life was in immediate danger so long as Scott 
was allowed to go free around the country. 

This case was one of self-defence, nothing else, 



— 30-^ 

The probabilities are that I will never go back to 
Canada. I expect no favor whatever from any party or 
parties. I have no more preference for the French 
Canadians than for English Canadians. I shall certainly 
never ask for anything from a Canadian source. My 
religions sentiments are of no consequence in this matter. 
I am not writing this in order to win or obtain the good 
will of certain people. I care not if my opinion is shared 
01' endorsed by ten men or ten thousand men. A bloody 
deed has been accomplished. I know all or nearly all the 
parties that have been directly or indirectly connected 
with it, and what comes from my pen is dictated to me 
by my own conscience, and by my own conscience only. I 
write all I know and express the opinion I have formed 
after having heard and seen. 

Public opinion, humanity and the Christian world will 
judge which of the two men is the greatest murderer, the 
vilest criminal — Sir John A. MacDonald, K.C.B., .... a 
member of Her Majesty's Privy Council, Premier and 
President of the Council for the Dominion of Canada, 
the modern Machiavelli and Supreme Ruler of one of 
Queen Victoria's colonies, the old, decrepit and unscrupu- 
lous statesman who has already one foot in the grave, or 
Louis David Riel, the young, energetic and heroic Half- 
breed who, at the age of twenty-six, took up arms for the 
defense and protection of his native land, and who, sixteen 
years after died bravely for its cause, without even cursing 
the name of the man who had plotted and orderedhis death 'i 






— 31 — 

THE TROOPS IN MANITOBA. 

After the arriYal of the Canadian troops in Manitoba, 
August, 18Y0, the country soon quieted down and the 
establishment of tlie Canadian Government went on 
steadily under the able direction of Mr. Archibald, the 
first Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. 

The first battalion Ontario Rifles, composed almost 
exclusively of English Canadians and Orangemen, was 
quartered at Fort Garry, that is to say, in the midst of 
the French Half-breed settlement ; and the second battalion 
Quebec Rifles, in whose ranks were the 150 French 
Canadian Volunteers, was sent to the Stone Fort, twenty- ' 
two miles distant, and surrounded by the English popula-- 
tion of the Province. 

Was this arrangement a wise one i I hardly think so, 
and the numberless scenes of horror that soon followed 
prove that the contrary would have been far better ! 
But, the Commander in Chief, Colonel Wolseley, the 
bame who almost conmienced his military career in 
Manitoba, and who recently ended it so gloriously in the 
Soudan, liad ordered that it should be so, and so it was ! 

Flere, a very strong and vejy peculiar analogy strikes 
me as being worthy of remark : Wolseley was sent to 
Manitoba Avith positive instructions (no doubt) to hang 
Riel, and he could not accomplish his mission, he arrived 
too late ! Fifteen years later he was dispatched to the 
Soudan at the head of a strong and imposing army, with 



32 



orders to rescue General Gordon, and there again he 
arrived too late ! 

He had only a small army when he went to Manitoba, 
and, save myriads of mosquitoes, found nobody or noth- 
ing to fight with ; he went back to England a great victor, 
and he was made a General and a Sir. Later on he was 
made a Lord ! 

When he went to the Soudan, he had the command of 
a large ai-my, and there at last he found a chance to 
fight. JBut this time the enemy proved a trifle tougher 
than mosquitoes, and the result was (notwithstanding the 
assertions to the contrary published at the time by the Eng- 
lish press) defeat after defeat, and a double-quick retreat. 

The worse of it all, is that poor gallant General Gordon 
never saw the radiant face of his would-be rescuer — and 
who can tell that it was not Wolseley's incapacity and 
slow action that caused Gordon's death? 

Victorious when he had nobody to battle with, 
Wolseley was thrashed ignominously when he met the 
soldiei-s of the Mahdi. He was successful in Manitoba 
with a small body of troops without firing a single shot, 
and he called his invisible enemy, '^ banditti. " In the 
Soudan, when commanding thousands of well armed 
men, he was most shamefully beaten. Nevertheless, ho 
returned to England, and was received with cheers. His 
next reward (?) will be a Duke's title, and he will change 
his name from Lord Mosquito Wolseley to that of 
Puke Kartoon Toolate ! 



— 33 — 

And, of course, he will duly modify and improve his 
ducal escutcheon, and place prominently on it the livid 
and bloody head of brave General Gordon ! 

ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE ONTARIO 
VOLUNTEERS. 

The Red River Expeditionary Corps was three months 
on its way to Manitoba, from CoUingwood to Winnipeg. 
The soldiers, regulars and volunteers, did not receive a 
penny during the journey. Five or six days after their 
arrival, they were paid in full, giving each man an average 
of twenty dollars. 

It was then that the lugubrious fun commenced. 
Those men who were supposed to be kept under the rules 
of strict military discipline, went around Winnipeg and 
vicinity, infuriated and drunk, yelling, swearing, cursing 
and threatening. They were looking and searching for 
the murderers of Scott. They unmercifully insulted and 
assaulted the Half-breeds who had been imprudent enough 
to come to town in order to attend to business. As 
yet there was no police force organized. Those 
soldiers, clad in the uniform of ller Most Gracious 
Majesty, became intoxicated and delirious brutes. They 
insulted women and children, beating most cruelly 
every Metis unfortunate enough to cross their path. 
They often entered isolated houses where they found de- 
fenceless women and children. The outrages they commit- 



34 



ted on many occasions are too revolting and too horrid to 
be put down in writing. All this was perpetrated in 
the name of their God and King William of Orange, 
and remained utterly unnoticed by the superior officer 
commanding at Fort Garry, Colonel Jar vis. He smiled 
complacently and indifferently at all these atrocities, more 
worthy of cannibals than of soldiers whose duty was to 
keep the peace and show moderation and good example. 
Who knows but good Colonel Jarvis regretted perhaps 
keenly, and m petto, that he was too old to take his share 
in the sanguinary sport. 

And, in the evening, after entering their barracks, 
(if they were not too drunk to breathe) these fearless and 
defiant warriors recounted with delight and touching pride 
their prowess of the day. 

However, the defaulters were never brought up to the 
orderly room to receive the punishment of their repulsive 
exploits. 

And why should they be punished? Pshaw! JS^on- 
sense ! The men they had left half dead on the ground, 
the women and young girls they had cowardly outraged, 
the children they had so cruelly beaten were only French 
Half-breeds, nothing but French Half-breeds ! 

REFERENCES. 

If my readers, whomsoever they may be, think I am 
exaggerating facts, I will humbly ask them to inquire into 



~ 35 -~ 

the veracity of my statements from such men as Governor 
Archibald, A. M. Brown, Dr. O'Donnell, Premier John 
Norqnay, Dr. Bird, Honorable J. II. Clarke, Governor 
Donald A. Smith, Honorable Capt. Thomas Howard, 
Honorable Judge Dubuc, John McTavish, etc., etc. All 
of these gentlemen (except Mr. Archibald) are still living 
in Manitoba, and I beg to observe that the majority of 
them were hostile and opposed to Kiel and his party. 

COLONEL WOLSELEY'S BLUNDER. 

While all these violences ^vere perpetrated in Winni- 
peg by the members of the 1st Batallion of Ontario 
spadassins, the 2d Batallion of Quebec, under the com- 
mand of Colonel A. Casault, was peacefully barracked in 
the Stone Fort, and but a few cases of insubordination 
were ever brought to the attention of Governor Archi- 
bald. 

Now, let us suppose for a moment that Colonel 
Wolseley had detailed the 1st Batallion for duty at the 
Stone Fort and the 2d Batallion at Foi't Garry, what 
would have been the result of such disposition ? 

Any honest, sensible and impartial mind can readily 
answer the question. If English-speaking soldiers had 
done duty among English-speaking settlers, they would 
undoubtedly have pulled together most admirably ; and if 
French-speaking volunteers had been quartered in the 
midst of the French-speaking population, none of the 



— 30 — 

ferocious deeds above related would have taken place. 
But, perhaps Colonel Wolseley had received instruc- 
tions to act as he did, and Sir John A. MacDonald had 
reasons of his own in giving such orders. 



A SIMPLE QUESTION. 

And now, let me ask who were the " banditti " in all 
this: The oppressed people who started a rebellion 
through pure patriotism, or the salaried vandals, wearing 
the British uniform, who had been sent to subdue it and 
make the English name honored and respected ? 

The former had been almost starved while^fightingfor 
their rights ; the latter were paid by the government to 
plunder and to kill. 

The opinion of the civilized world and posterity will 
answer. 

HALF-BREEDS DISPOSSESSED BY ONTARIO 
SPECULATORS. 

A few months later, the Dominion Government suc- 
ceeded in quieting the Ilalf-breeds by a grant of 240 
acres of land to each one of them living in Manitoba, as 
a compensation for disturbing the old river frontage 
system. 

Here commences a period of hidden and calculated 
persecution and base speculation of another order. 



— 37 — 

As soon as the decision ©f the government was known 
through the Province, speculators started their work of 
monopoly. Thej commenced by making friends with the 
Metis ; they attracted them and w^atched their presence in 
town. The tigers and the lambs of the day before met in 
the bar-room and drank together. The scheming specu- 
lators purposely treated their intended victims gener- 
ously. Many of the Ilalf-breeds, unsuspicious of what 
was going on under hand, fell into the snare, and very 
often, when under the influence of liquor, sold their claims I 
for a mock remuneration. I have known intimately well- I 
established citizens of Winnipeg, who succeeded in buy- 
ing Half-breed's titles (240 acres) for twenty, twenty-five 
and thirty dollars. Some of those speculators canvassed 
the country from Portage La Prairie to Pointe du Chene, 
and by some means or another came back from their trip 
the lawful possessors of large and extensive tracks of land. 

I am far from blaming those who were shrewd and i 
adroit enough to acquire w^ealth in so short a time. It , 
was a legal transaction. E'or shall I blame the Metis \ 
who foolishly and thoughtlessly sold their land for 
a morsel of bread. This is certainly no business of mine. 
But what I find tricky and dishonorable, is the way in ; 
w^hich nine out of ten of these transactions w^ere made. 1 

Supposing I know that such and such a man is inclined 
to drink, and that after the first glass of liquor he is 
liable to lose control of himself, would I be acting the 
part of an honest man by seeking him, in the very midst 



— 38 — 

of his family, and througli convincing and persuasive 
talk decide him to make the first step ? After his third 
or fourth glass, the man will readily sign a deed by which 
he will find himself, on the morrow, without a home. 
And all this will have been accomplished for a trivial sum 
of money. I may be wealthier after the bargain is con- 
cluded, but I fail to see if I will be as respectable, or still 
deserving to be called honest. Unfortunately, in the 
eyes of many people, in every country of the world, this 
is only a trifling consideration, even if the man thus vic- 
timized is left without a roof to shelter himself and his 
family. 

But, what will Half-breeds think of us, civilized 
people, when they realize their first experience of civili- 
zation ? 



RIEL OFFERS HIS SERVICES TO THE GOVERNMENT.— 
THEY ARE ACCEPTED. 

In 1871, during the Fenian invasion headed by 
O'Donahue, Kiel, strongly prompted by Archbishop 
Tache, offered his services to the Government to help 
repulse the invaders. Governor Archibald crossed tlie 
Red River and met the banished leader in front of the 
cathedral of St. Boniface. Kiel's offer was accepted, 
and on the same day he went scouting around the country 
with two hundred of his men. 



— 39 — 

The invasion amounted to nothing anyway, and 
order was 80on restored throughout the country. 

RIEL ELECTED AT PROVEN CHER. 

Shortly afterwards, Kiel was unanimously elected a 
member of the House of Commons for the District of 
Provencher. 

lie went to Ottawa, and was regularly sworn into 
office by the Clerk of the House. Hearing of his presence 
in the city, infuriated Orangemen swore to slay the ex- 
rebel leader. Kiel was then advised to leave Ottawa, and 
the day after his departure, his seat was declared vacant. 
This is a striking instance of the weakness or bad will 
of the government. Here is a man who had been lawfully 
and unanimously elected a representative of the people, 
and who was prevented from taking his seat after being 
duly sworn into office. Not because his election was ^ 
declared fraudulent, but because a mob of fanatic \ 
Orangemen threatened his life if he dared to resume his 
duties as a member of the House of Commons. The 
Government of the Dominion, instead of protecting him 
as a Deputy, weakened before the threats, and yielded 
to the vociferations of a blood-thirsty oligarchy. 

THE GOVERNMENT'S COWARDICE, 

All of this has taken place in the nineteenth century, 
in a country belonging to the British Empire, and whos^ 



— 40 — 

Constitution is under the protection of the English flag ! 

Ah ! if Riel had been an Orangeman, Sir John A. Mac- 
Donald would have called out tlie whole strength of the 
Canadian Militia. 

If, instead of being a poor and simple Half-breed, Kiel 
liad been the dictatorial and wealthy representative of an 
Orange county, he would have taken his seat, even at the 
cost of twenty, fifty or one hundred lives and in spite 
of all the protestations of the whole Catholic Canada. 
But he was only a modest and uninfluential Metis, who 
had dared to resist the autocratic commands of the mighty 
Prime Minister, and his hfe would not have been safe, 
even on the floor of the House of Commons, where the 
majesty and greatness of Great Britain is so pompously 
represented by the most unscrupulous and most omnipo- 
tent statesmen of the Dominion. 



FIFTEEN YEARS 



or 



PERSECUTION. 



FIFTEEN YEARS OF PERSECDTION. 



II. 



THE REAL CAUSES OF THE REBELLIONS OF 1869 AND 
OF 1885. 

Let us recapitulate the principal facts that took place 
in Manitoba since 1869, and see if the Metis had sufficient 
reasons to protest against the acts of the Government 
which had treated them with such unwarranted contempt. 

1869. 

On the 29th of July, after hearing of the transaction 
that had taken place between the Canadian Government 
and the Hudson Bay Company, the French Half-breeds 
held their first meeting at St. Boniface, 

Eesolutions were passed and a Committee was appoint- 
ed to inquire of the Hudson Bay Company's officials 
what the population of Manitoba was to expect from the 
Bale of the country to the Canadian Government. The 



— 44 — 

members of the Committee were laughed at by the Com- 
pany's officers. 

These people were only asking wiiat would become 
of them and their families, when under the control of 
their purchasers. Their humble and just request was 
scorned with disdain. 

On the 19th of October, Honorable Wm. McDougall, 
the Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Ottawa Cabi- 
net, was on his way to Winnipeg ; he was forbidden the 
entry of the Province by the TIalf-breeds, who insisted 
upon knowing what would be their lot, before allowing 
the Canadian Government's representative to enter the 
country. Mr. McDougall thought it advisable to retreat, 
and he returned to Ottawa. 

On IS'ovember 3d, the rebels (?) took possession of 
Fort Garry, the most important post of the Hudson Bay 
Company, and on the 8th of December, the Provisional 
Government was organized and Riel elected President. 

AVas there anything wrong in these actions of the 
Metis ? I should certainly think not. Had the Canadian 
Ministers let these people know what their intentions 
were, the rebellion would not have taken place. Had the 
Hudson Bay Company used a little more discretion in 
its dealing with the Half-breeds, the outbreak would 
never have occurred. 

1870. 

On the Tth uf January, seeing that things were getting 



45 



serious, and that tlie Metis, so long ignored, were not 
disposed to allow themselves to be swallowed up without 
protesting most energetically, the Canadian Gov^ernment 
asked the mediation of Bishop Tache who was known to 
have great influence over his people. 

The Right Reverend Bishop kindly consented to act 
as mediator between the Government and the rebels (?) 
and on the 16th of February, Sir John A. MacDonald 
officially authorized Bishop Tache to proclaim, in the Cabi- 
net's name, a full and general amnesty, and to promise the 
Metis the entire and energetic protection of the Govern- 
ment. 

While this was taking place, and at the time when the 
whole difficulty was about being settled. Major Boulton, 
pretending to be an authorized representative of the Gov- 
ernment of Canada, endeavored, with about 200 men, to 
take Riel prisoner. Riel rightly saw in this occurrence a 
direct and outrageous violation of the amnesty that had 
just been proclaimed, and decided to accord no more con- 
fidence to the promises of Sir John A. MacDonald, until 
futher consideration. 

It was shortly after — March 4th — that Thomas Scott 
was executed. 1 liave already said, and I now repeat, 
that Scott deserved his fate, and I defy any li\dng man, 
who has positively known what sort of a desperate char- 
acter Scott was, to consciencously put forward the argu- 
ment that his death was not a measure of public safety ; 
and I will go further, in saying, that only those who have 



— 46 — 

an object in calling that execution a cold-blooded murder, 
can deny the fact that this deed was on Kiel's part, as I 
said before, absolutely and exclusively a case of 

SELF-DEFENCE. 

After his arrest and before his trial, Scott was asked 
several times to leave the country, he persistently refused, 
and he said openly on several occasions that he should re- 
main in Manitoba until he had put a bullet through the 
brains of that of a French Half- 
breed Kiel. 

He was advised by his own friends to keep quiet and 
wait patiently, like the other people of the Province, for 
the re-establishment of peace and order. No, he insisted 
npon '' having that bastard's life." 
/ Liquor had made of Scott a mad and dangerous being; 
and in Manitoba as well as anywhere else, when one 
meets a venomous snake, the best thing he can do is to 
crush its head. 

The Orange press has said, again and again, that Eiel's 
government was not legal, that the court that had tried 
and sentenced Scott had no jurisdiction or authority, and 
that consequently his execution was a murder. 

But let us see : 

Had that government de facto been organized and 
formed by the people ? 

Unquestionably yes ! 



— 47 — 

Had Kiel the right to appoint a court of justice to try 
a felon ? 

Undeniably yes ! 

And had that court of justice the right to pronounce 
a sentence ? 

Undoubtedly yes ! 

I know full well, that what preceeds will create an 
uproar among a certain class of people — the red-hot apos- 
tles of William of Orange, for instance — but I shall, 
nevertheless, insist upon this point : Scott was deserving 
a severe and exemplary punishment, and in supposing 
that Eiel and the members of his government took a 
great responsibility upon themselves in allowing him to 
be put to death, the following puts an end to all 
arguments about this charge : 

On the ^ith of June, 1873, Lord Kimherly, Secretary 
for the Colonies, in answer to an official request, signed 
hy Lord Dufferin, then Governor General of Canada, 
notified the Dominion Cabinet that the Imperial Govern- 
ment had granted a full amnesty in favm' of Riel and 
his followers. 

AVhat can remain to be said now ? If in reality Riel 
had committed manslaughter in 1869, which hypothesis 
is very questionable, he was fully pardoned in 1873 by 
the Imperial Government of Her Majesty the Queen of 
Great Britain. 

On the 9th of March, 1870, Bishop Tache returned from 



48 



r)ttawa, and in the name of the Imperial and Dominion 
governments promised a complete amnesty to all the 
insurgents in general, and to Kiel and Lepine in particu- 
lar, and a full pardon for all offences committed during 
the insurrection, inclxiding the execution of Scott. 

AN INFAMOUS TREACHERY. 

On the 24th of the same month. Father Eitchot, 
Judge Blake and Mr. A. Scott were sent to Ottawa as dele- 
gates for the Metis, and they came back to Manitoba on 
the 17th of June, reporting that Lord Dufferin and Sir 
Clinton Murdoch had given the assurance, in the name of 
Her Majesty, that the amnesty would hepUine et entiere ! 

On the 12th of July, Bishop Tache received a letter 
from Sir George E. Cartier, Minister of Militia, corroborat- 
ing and confirming the statement of the delegates with 
i-eference to the entirety of the amnesty. 

On the 21:th of August, the troops, under command of 
Colonel Wolseley, arrived at Fort Garry, and in spite of 
all the peaceful and solemn assurances of the Ottawa 
Government, the Commander in Chief issued the procla- 
mation spoken of previously, calling " banditti " the men 
who had received, five months previous, the assurance of 
a full pardon by the Imperial Government. 

A¥ho was guilty of this abominable treachery ? The 
Imperial Government '\ The Dominion Cal)inet \ or Colo- 
nel Wolseley '{ 



4:9 



I know not, but I know who were the too numerous 
victims of this infamous and unprecedented snare, of this 
vile and base perfidy. With the arrival of the troops 
commenced the fearful reign of terror I have already 
and rapidly described. 

/57/. 

On the 3d of October, Lieutenant-Governor Archi- 
bald issued a proclamation asking for volunteers to 
i-epulse the Fenian invasion. Forgetting how cruelly 
they had been wronged, Kiel offered his services and 
those of his followers to the Government. 

Mr. Archibald accepted his oifer and reviewed the 
Metis volunteers at St. Boniface. Kiel immediately 
started with two hundred men. 

In an official letter addressed to Sir John A. 
MacDonald, Mr. Archibald frankly stated that the loyalty 
shown by the entire population of the Province, and the 
success he had met in protecting it against the Fenian 
invasion, was entirely due to the policy of moderation he 
had adopted toward the Metis. His letter contained the 
following passage, which we shall leave to the appreciation 
of impartial and well-thinking people : " Had the French 
^' Metis been pushed to extremities, O'Donahue, the 
" Fenian leader, who had been a member of Kiel's govern- 
" ment, and who had many friends among the Half-breeds, 
'' would have been joined by the whole population of the 



— 50 — 

'' country situated between Pembina and the Assiniboine 
** River, the Euglish portion of the Province would have 
" been plundered, and the English settlers massacred to 
'' the last." 

Were Eiel and his followers confirmed and irrepress- 
ible rebels after all ? 

Did not their loyal course in this predicament prove 
that, had the members of Sir John A. MacDonald's Cabi- 
net understood better the people they had so long and so 
grossly wronged, they could have had in them the most 
faithful and reliable subjects in the Dominion. 

Fair and proper treatment would have forever made 
them staunch and true to the British crown. 

But they never got such treatment at the hands of 
the Canadian Government, and the last blow they have 
received in the execution of Riel has irrevocably severed 
any possible and amicable tie with his executioners. 

On the 27th of December of the same year (1871) 
after a full and comj^lete amnesty had been proclaimed, 
after Riel and his Metis had proved that they were will- 
ing to redeem the past. Sir John A. MacDonald found a 
new way to cowardly insult the leader of the Metis. 
In a confidential letter addressed to Bishop Tache, he ap- 
prised him that he had adopted a new and friendly policy 
regarding Kiel. 

In that letter was a check for $1000 to be given 
to Kiel on condition that he would leave the country, mu] 
go to the United States, 



51 



I need not say that the check was refused. 

This new and bitter insult was bravely swallowed by 
the Metis chief, and the next humiliation was patiently 
looked for. 

1872. 

The beginning of that year was full of sad and tumul- 
tuous events for Kiel. 

The Orange element, stationed at Fort Garry, com- 
menced their nightly excursions towards St. Yital, the 
parish were Kiel lived with his family. 

The young Metis leader had been pardoned by the 
Imperial and Dominion governments, but not by the 
worthy companions of Scott. 

They frecpiently visited the house inhabited by Kiel's 
mother, and insulted most unmercifully that old and 
defenceless woman. They tried to obtain from her, by 
force, the name of the place where her son was living. 
They threatened to lire the house ; they even went so far 
as to beat her. 

I have now a revelation to make which will explain 
why some of these Ontario cut-throats were so anxious 
to meet Kiel. 

What I am about to expose is so horrid and repulsive 
that my readers will probably doubt it, but I will never- 
theless go on with what I have to say. 

I have not been told about this fact. I have wit- 



— 52 — 

nessed it, and I most solemnly declare that I am now 
writing the truth, as revolting as it may appear. A man (?) 
named Frank Cornish, a lawyer by profession, came to 
Manitoba towards the end of 1871, and opened an office 
in Winnipeg. 

He was originally from London (Ontario), and had 
been Mayor of that town. 

A most scandalous affair which made quite a noise at 
the time all through the country, obliged him to leave 
Upper Canada. 

He came to Manitoba, well knowing that there was a 
field for one of his stamp and calibre. He was a 
fervent Orangeman, and soon was known by all his co- 
religionists. 

One week or so after his arrival in Winnipeg I met 
him in a court room for the first time. I shall remember, 
as long as I live, the first impression he produced on me. 

He was rather heavily built. The expression of his 
face had something of the wolf and fox mixed together. 
His eyes, fearfully crooked, like his conscience, had a 
look of cruelty difficult to describe. 

He was an astute and shrewd politician, a fluent but 
violent speaker. 

Soon after his arrival in Manitoba, I heard that, 
although professing to be an irreconcilable enemy of 
Sir John A. MacDonald, he was staunchly devoted to 
him, and always ready to do the dirty work of the Prime 
Minister. He soon became very popular among the 



— 53 — 

enemies and persecutors of Kiel — and later on he wan 
elected Mayor of Winnipeg. 

One evening, I was going on foot from one of the 
hotels in the town to the house of a friend, who was 
residing on the bank of the Red River. 

It was about nine o'clock, snow had fallen heavily 
during the day, and I could not hear my own footsteps. 

In turning a corner of the road, the sound of several 
voices reached my ear. and I distinctly heard the name 
of Riel. 

I naturally stopped and listened without seeing the 
parties who were speaking, they were hidden from me 
by the corner of a demolished stone fence. 

While listening attentively, I recognized the voice of 
Frank Cornish, and the following is the exact report of 
tbe conversation which was going on : 

Cornish was speaking : " Riel must now be in his 
house, I tell you. I know that he came to-day from Pem- 
bina and that he will be with his mother until to-morrow 
morning. Xow is the time to catch him." 

" Who guarantees that the money will be paid us after 
the thing is done ? " 

" I do, there are two thousand dollars to be divided 
between the four of you." 

" Yes," said another voice, " and you keep three thou- 
sand dollars for yourself. We are to do the job and 
run all the risks, and we four won't get as much as you who 
are doing nothing." 



54 



" Xever mind what I keep for mjself," said Cornish, 
" there are no risks any how. Kiel is a damned rebel 
after all. Sir John A. MacDonald will be only too glad 
to get rid of him. He won't prosecute anybody. ]Sow, 
is it understood ? " 

" Well ! we'll start right now ; but remember, if we get 
into trouble, you'll get us out of it." 

" Don't fret, and don't forget this: I don't want his 
body, his head will do. You have your bag and your 
masks. You are well armed, now go on, I shall wait the 
whole night for you in my office." 

A few moments after, I saw four men crossing the 
Assiniboine, just opposite Fort Garry, and going in the 
direction of St. Vital. 

The conversation did not end there ; Cornish and 
another man were still speaking. 

"Are you sure that the check will be paid?" asked 
the man. 

" I am ; all the man who came from Toronto wants, 
is Kiel's head. He'll cash the check on delivery I " 

Here I heard a laugh. 

''But let us go," continued Cornish, " it is too cold for 
me here ; there is a good lire in the office and some good 
whiskey, come along." 

And the voices gi'ew weaker and more and more 
indistinct. The two men were going towards the town. 

I resolved then and there to baffle this infamous con- 
spiracy. I was well acquainted with the Deputy Chief 



of the Mounted Police, Kichard Power, a young man 
who has since met his death in the performance of his 
duty. It did not take ine fifteen minutes to go to his 
office. 

Fortunately I found him in. " Power," said I, " you 
and I can prevent a great calamity, will you come with 
me and do what I say '? 1 shall explain everything on our 
way." 

He knew that such words, coming from me, were not 
uttered without a serious cause. Ten minutes after, he 
had put his best horse to his cutter, and each of us armed 
with a good Smith & Wesson revolver and a Snyder 
carbine, started like the wind for the parish of St. Vital. 
While on our way I told him all 1 had heard. The 
brave fellow and I soon decided upon a plan of action. 
There were only two things to be done : to reach Kiel's 
house in time to warn him of the danger that was threat- 
ening him, or, if we arrived too late, see that the assassins 
could not accomplish their bloody scheme. 

Riel's house at St. Vital was seven miles from Fort 
Garry. About midway we saw the four men, who had 
stopped on the right handside of the road, they were 
smoking and drinking. In passing by them we held on 
our horse in order to try if we could not hear some of 
their conversation. 

Being completely wrapped in furs there was no danger 
that we would be recognized. 

One of the men addressed us, and we stopped: 



56 



" Hello ! travelers, are you going far ? " 
^' As far as Pembina," answered I. '^ And you? " 
'' Oh ! " said the man, laughing, " we are only on a 
pleasure trip. Won't you take a drink with us ? " 
" No, thanks ! we have our own flasks." 
" Well, good-bye, strangers ; hope you'll arrive safe 
in Pembina." 

'* So long, and good luck to you ; hope you will enjoy 
your pleasure trip." 

" You bet we will," said one of the men. " Good-by." 
We whipped up the horse and left the four ruffians 
behind. 

" Good ! " said I. to Power, " the roads are covered 
with snow, those men will not reach St. Vital before an 
hour or so. All is well ; we have plenty of time before 
us, but let us get there as quickly as possible." 

The trip from Fort Garry to St. Vital did not take us 
over eighteen or twenty minutes. When we arrived at 
E-iel's house we saw a light through the windows. The 
bells of our horse had been heard by the people inside. 

A man, a Metis, came to the door and asked us in 
French, who we were and what we wanted. I answered 
in the same language, and told him that we were friends, 
and that we had some serious news to communicate. 
" If you are friends, come in, and be welcome." 
We jumped out of our sleigh, and on entering the 
house we saw three French Half-breeds sitting around 
the fire-place. Kiel was one of them. 



— 57 — 

His mother and another Half-breed woman were in 
another part of the room. 

I had met Riel several times before. When they saw 
us, the Half-breeds got up from their chairs, and the 
movements they made with their hands — as if to search in 
their pockets — showed that they were prepared for any 
emergency. 

It had been decided between Power and myself that it 
was he who would be the speaker. I did not care, at the 
time, to be recognized by the young Metis leader. 

" Mr. Eiel," said my companion, " we have come to 
you this evening as friends, and when you know the 
cause of our visit, you will see that you have nothing to 
fear from us." 

" I fear nothing and nobody," answered Kiel, '' but 
speak I what has brought you here ? " 

"If in ten minutes you have not left this house," 
continued Power, "your life will be in serious danger." 

And then he told him all about the four men who 
were at that very moment on their way to the house, and 
what their intentions were. 

"Let them come," spoke up one of Kiel's friends, 
" we are ready for them, and if it comes to the worst we 
will show those men that Kiel's head is still soKd upon 
his shoulders." 

Kiel motioned his friend to keep quiet. " I thank you 
most heartily, gentlemen, for what you have done for 
me, but," said he, " I am getting tired of this cowardly 



— 58 — 

persecution ; why should I leave my own house and fly 
like a poltroon ? Four assassins are looking for me, did 
you say ; very well, let them cross the threshold of this 
door, they'll find me here. I am waiting." 

Here I interfered, and made him understand that we 
had come to prevent a crime, if possible ; that we did 
not doubt his courage, but that every moment was pre- 
cious, and the presence of his mother alone ought to 
determine him that fighting was completely out of time 
and place at present. 

" Yes," added Power, " if you persist in your decision 
to wait for these men, you will not only aggravate your 
position but very likely compromise us, who have come, 
moved by a friendly feeling, to tell you of the danger 
that was threatening your life." 

Kiel understood the strength of this argument ; he 
shook hands with us, and in five minutes, his friends, his 
mother and himself left the house, and went towards 
Eiviere Sale, five miles distant. I afterwards heard that 
they spent the night in Father Eitchot's house at St. 
Norbert. 

After their departure, my companion and I decided 
to see what was coming next. We drove the horse and 
sleigh behind a barn about thirty yards from the house 
and, carbine in hand, we waited for the arrival of the four 
blackguards. 

We had not been in waiting ten minutes, when we saw 



— 59 — 

four shadows coming from the main road and creeping 
like snakes towards the house. 

Seeing no light inside, they went all around the small 
building, and when they met in front of the door, they 
loudly manifested their disappointment. 

" I am sure there is nobody in there,'' said a voice, 
'* the fire in the chimney lights the room, and you can 
see through the windows at the back of the house, that 
there is not a living soul in it." 

•* Perhaps they are sleeping," said another one. 

" No ! " answered the first one, " I saw the beds, they 
are empty.'' 

"We'd l)etter wait then, perhaps he will come." 

" Wait ! I'll be damned if 1 do. Riel won't come to- 
night." 

" Suppose we set the house afire," went on another. 

"Good idea,'' joined in ^ the one who had not yet 
spoken, " let us have some fun." 

The scene was lit by a beautiful moon whose reflection 
on the snow made it almost as bright as day. 

I said to my friend Power : " If these devils try to 
burn the house, what do you think Ave had better do." 

" Shoot them down as if they were wolves," was his 
answer. 

" All right I " you take the two on the left, aifd leave 
the others to me. But, let us keep cool, and whatever 
happens, wait until you hear my first shot, and then go 



— «0 — 

for them." He did not answer, but I heard him cocking 
his Snyder, and I followed suit. 

Meanwhile, the conversation was going on in the 
opposite camp, and we heard distinctly the one who 
seemed to be the leader, saying : ^* No nonsense, we had 
better go back to Winnipeg, and leave no traces here, 
nobody will suspect that we have come, we will return 
some other time, and vtdll have better luck." 

A few moments after, they had disappeared. 

I never could find out who these four men were, and 
I do not know how they felt over their fiasco, but what 
1 do know most positively is that never before in their 
lives had they been in such deadly danger as on that 
evening. Had they only fired a match to light their pipes, 
they were certainly four dead men. 

Frank Cornish started on a big spree the day after, 
and was not seen sober for a month afterwards. 

]^ow, who was the man from Ontario, who came to 
Winnipeg in order to get RieFs head? And who was 
ready to pay five thousand dollars for it i I need not say 
that Orangemen from Toronto, or, who knows, perhaps 
Sir John A. MacDonald himself could answer these 
questions better tlian I could. 

And if there is justice in heaven, those who were im- 
plicated in that savage conspiracy, will have to render 
a terrible account for their infamy. 

In the beginning of February of the same year (1ST2), 
lliel's friends decided that he and Lepine should leave 



— 61 — 

the Province until further orders, and on the 14th 
of that month thej started under tlie protection of a 
platoon of police, detailed by Captain Louis F. de Plain- 
val, who was then in command of the Provincial Mounted 
Police force. 

The general elections of 1872 throughout Canada 
were in a great many respects a surprise to the political 
world of the Dominion. 

Sir George Etienne Cartier, was defeated in Montreal 
East, which he had represented so long in the House of 
Commons. 

Mr. Jette, his opponent, won the election. 

Sir George E. Cartier found himself without a seat 
in Parliament, and the Cabinet of which he was the most 
prominent member with Sir John A. MacDonald was, 
by that fact placed in a very critical position. 

Kiel had been nominated in the county of Provencher, 
Manitoba. Hearing of Sir George's defeat in Montreal, 
he generously resigned in his favor, and thanks to that 
act of self-sacrifice. Sir George E. Cartier — upon whose 
following rested the existence of Sir John A.MacDonald's 
administration — found a seat, without which he could not 
continue to be a Member of the Ministry. 

I really fail to see if such conduct was that of an in- 
veterate rebel, and Sir John A. MacDonald ought to have 
remembered it before placing the rope in the hands of 
the sheriff at Kegina, 



— 62 — 
THOSE ORANGE LAMBS ! 

The elections in Manitoba were the occasion of the 
most revolting scenes of savagery and cruelty ever wit- 
nessed in a civilized country. 

Orangemen of Winnipeg turned out in full force. 

Before casting their votes, they had, according to a 
time-immemorial custom, been generously supplied with 
liquor. 

Armed to the teeth they went around the tow^n 
preventing the Half-breeds from voting. 

Frank Cornish was their leader. 

Capt. Louis Frasse de Plain val, Chief of the Provincial 
Mounted Police, the representative of Her Majesty's 
authority, was overpowered by them and came very near 
losing his life while performing his duty. 

He received, in less than two minutes, six ugly and 
very dangerous wounds, and was left for dead on the 
ground. He lingered between life and death for over 
two weeks, and it was fully a month before he was 
declared out of danger. After their commander had 
fallen, several policemen were also dangerously wuunded. 

During the evening and the day after, the town was 
absolutely in the })ower of the Orange mob. 

The office of the Manitohari, a paper then hostile 
to the Orange party, w^as ransacked and set on lire. 

The office of the Metis^ the organ of the French 
population, vras also destroyed. 



— 63 — 

Private houses were entered and plundered, and all 
this took place while a garrison of two hundred and lif ty 
men were tranquilly awaiting orders in Fort Garry. 

As usual, Orange rioters were not troubled; the Gov- 
ernment was positively afraid to act. 

I lind here room for a little episode which will give 
an idea of the love and respect of Orangemen for estab- 
lished institutions and law^s. 

Dr. Bird, an honorable citizen of the City of Winni- 
peg, was elected to the local Parliament and chosen 
Speaker of that body. Dr. Bird had a large practice and 
was, indeed, much esteemed by the people. At about one 
o'clockof the night, the Doctor was called upon for a .-ick 
man, residing about two miles outside the city limits, lie 
called his sei-vant to harness his liorse to a sleigh, and 
shortly after left alone on his professional errand. The 
man who had called upon him had left after giving 
the address of the patient. xVbout one mile from the 
city, the -Doctor was stopped by six masked men, who 
violently pulled him out of his sleigh, undressed him, 
then covered him with tar and feathers, and, after un- 
mercifully beating him, left the Doctor half dead and 
lying in the snow. Fortunately, the Doctor was a man 
powerfully constituted and of strong vital powers, he 
succeeded in getting into his sleigh again, and was able 
to drive back home. 

The day after, the devotees of William of Orange 
openly bragged that they were the authors of this cow- 



— 64 — 

ardlj act, which was committed as a revenge upon Dr. 
Bird, because, as Speaker of Parliament, he had, in the 
exercise of his legislative prerogative, given his casting 
vote against an arbitrary measure which had been propos- 
ed by the Orange members of the same local Parliament. 
Honest and respectable citizens will see in the above, 
of how much fairness, of how much constitutional up- 
rightness the disciples of Orangeism are capable. Here 
again, the Government crawled in his accustomary manner 
before the breakers of the law, the prevaricators of 
constitutional rights — who had outraged, not only a 
private and peaceful citizen, but a dignitary who was the 
chosen of the pec)])le for the discharge of one of the most 
important offices known to the British crown. 



After the death of the much regretted Sir George £. 
Cartier, Piel was again re-elected by acclamation for the 
same county of Provencher, but, as I have mentioned 
before, he could not take his seat, simply because Orange- 
men were opposed to his presence in the House of 
Commons, and the Government was too cowardly to 
sustain liim in his rights. 

ARBITRARY JUDICIAL DECISION. 

On the 15th of October, without the slightest motive 
or reason, Piel was declared an outlaw by the Court of 
Queen's Bench iji Manitoba. 

I defy any li\ing man to bring forward any argu- 




Joseph Norbert Alfred Provencher. 



— 65 — 

meat that can justify such a severe step on the part of 
justice. 

Yes, there was one reason for that nnqnalified decision 
of the Court — only one : Kiel was a French Half -breed. 

ANOTHER AMNESTY, BUT CONDITIONED ON EXILE. 

On the 12th of February, 1875, another amnesty was 
issued in favor of Eiel and Lepine, on condition that 
they would leave the Province of Manitoba for five years. 

After residing for a while in the Province of Quebec, 
Kiel traveled in the United States, and he finally settled 
in Montana in 1879, where he succeeded in finding a 
position as teacher in an industrial school. 

In 1881, Kiel married Miss Marguerite Bellehumeur, 
the daughter of a French Metis "•living near Fort Elliot. 
The four years that followed his marriage were undis- 
turbed years of happiness for the Metis patriot, who, al- 
though quite young, had already experienced man's bitter 
cruelty and persecution. 

Loved and respected by all those who approached 
him, or lived near him, he soon succeeded in gaining 
great popularity among his new neighbors. They knew 
of his agitated and tormented life, and they had an op- 
portunity to see — notwithstanding all the hatred he had 
been subjected to — that he was really worthy of the 
deepest sympathy and respect. 

Thev saw in the man who had been treated like the 



66 



idlest criminal, a model sou, a loving and devoted hus- 
band, and, later on, a fond and affectionate father. They 
had heard that Riel was an excitable and hot-headed 
revolutionist, but since he had joined their community 
he had always shown the greatest obedience to the 
estabKshed laws and a strong liking for peace and order. 

They knew that this man had been banished from his 
native country like a despicable renegade, but from the 
day of his arrival in their midst, he had proved to be 
possessed of the soundest and purest religious principles. 

The years 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884 and the beginning 
of 1885 formed the happiest epoch of Kiel's Kfe. 

Far from all outside influences, he devoted all his 
time and attention to his family, and to the duties imposed 
upon him by his position as a teacher. 

WHAT LED TO THE REBELLION OF 1885. 

From 1875 to 1884 a great number of French Half- 
breeds, dispossessed of theii* lands by the speculators who 
had infested Manitoba during these nine years, left the 
Province for the Saskatchewan, and established them- 
selves in that new territory. 

There, the persecution they had experienced in Mani- 
toba continued more lively than ever. Those of the 
Metis who had taken a homestead wherein to place their 
families, were driven out by people who pretended they 



— 67 — 

had regularly purchased the same properties from the 
authorities in Ottawa or Winnipeg. 

Half-breeds were pursued and chased from place to 
place, and they were soon obliged to live wherever they 
could, under tents or wigwams. 

Poverty and starvation soon overtook the oppressed 
population, while speculators were getting wealthy, and 
building comfortable houses and opulent establishments. 
These poor victims of rapacity and extortion were living 
with their wives and children as well as they could. 

It has often been said in the United States that one 
of the blackest spots in American history is the way in 
which Indians were treated through the cupidity of venal 
Indian agents. 

The extortions pei*petrated openly in the Saskatchewan 
by Upper Canadians and Englishmen, will leave upon 
their name an indelible stigma of abject knavery and 
sharp practice. The Ottawa Government was often in- 
formed through reliable sources of all that was going on in 
the North-west, but never paid the slightest attention to 
the warnings. 

Prominent people, conscious that a threatening storm 
was fast approaching, implored the Ottawa Cabinet 
to take immediate measures for the relief of the much 
abused and starved population of that part of the 
Dominion. 

The guilty indifference shown by Sir John A. Mac- 
Donald and his Cabinet towards Manitoba and the Sas- 



— OR — 

katchewan since 1878, had often aroused tlie indignation 
not only of the French Half -breeds, but of the entire 
population of the two Provinces as well. The Provincial 
governments were often called upon, to remonstrate with 
the Canadian Ministers for their unqualified neglect con- 
cerning the affairs of the North-west territories. 

Deputations were often sent to Ottawa and returned 
pacified with promises. 

But these promises were forgotten as soon as made. 
No longer than one year ago, the agitation in Manitoba 
became somewhat alarming. 

Indignation meetings were held in which the question 
of annexation to the United States was seriously discuss- 
ed. The Honorable John Norquay, Prime Minister for 
the Province of Manitoba, was sent to Ottawa with an 
ultimatum addressed to the Cabinet, and came back partly 
satisfied that Sir Jolm A. MacDonald would at last do 
something. 

As yet I fail to see what has been done, but as the 
last rebellion has absorbed the wliole Dominion, since its 
beginning (March, 1885) the local governments of tlie two 
North-western Provinces seem to liave forgotten their 
griefs, for the time being. 

In January, 1884, 1 met two gentlemen who had just 
returned from Pegina and Winnipeg. They assured me 
that no pen could describe the state of things in the 
North-west. The suffering and misery of the Half-breed 
population were beyond description. 



-^ 69 — 

People were actually in a starving condition and at 
the mercy of the Mounted Police force and the mercan- 
tile element. Provisions and supplies of all kinds were 
sold at exhorbitant prices, and the treatment of the French 
Metis, at the hands of the authorities, was something atro- 
cious. 

They condemned most bitterly the criminal indiffer- 
ence of the Government officials and prophesied an 
imminent and terrible outbreak. 

These gentlemen were sincere in their statements ; 
Europeans by birth, and free from all partisanship, the 
impartiality of their judgment cannot be questioned. 

R/EL'S HAPPY HOME IN MONTANA. 

In 1884, Kiel was living happily in the midst of his 
family, in Montana. For three years he had carefully 
kept himself aloof from political circles. God had bless- 
ed his marriage and had made him the father of two 
beautiful children. 

The love he bestowed upon his wife, his son and his 
daughter won the admiration of all who knew him. The 
man whose heart had been convulsed by an agitated life 
was gradually recuperating under the unbounded attach- 
ment and devotion of the young wife who had made him 
twice a father. 

He had forgotten his past sufferings and the persecu- 
tions he had endured for the sake of his country and the 



70 



welfare of his people. Between the love of his wife and 
the smiles of his infant children, he allowed himself to 
hope that at last the stormy days were over for him, and 
his soul was filled with an infinite confidence in the mercy 
and protection of heaven. 

RIEL'S PERSECUTED COUNTRYMEN BEG FOR HIS AID. 

In June, 1884, Riel was visited by some influential 
Metis: Gabriel Dumont, Moise Ouellette and two or three 
others. These men had travelled nearly fifteen hundred 
miles to see him. 

They told him of the poverty and misery of his Half- 
breed brothers in the Saskatchewan ; of their treatment 
at the hands of the Government employees ; of their 
starving condition ; of the insolence and cruelty of the 
Ontario speculators, who had wrongly and unlawfully 
dispossessed of their lands a great number of Metis. 

They warmly appealed to his patriotism, to his well- 
known love for his race. 

Riel listened to them. He deeply sympathized with 
all they said, but he spoke of his determination not to 
take any further part in politics. His past experience 
had been too severe a lesson for him. 

Gabriel Dumont told him that their sufliering brothers 
had no one else but him (Kiel) to place at their head 
and to insist upon the Government redressing their 
wrongs. 



— 71 — 

He appealed to his well-kriowu nobleness of heart : 
" Our families are without bread," said Dumont to E-iel. 
'' The Mounted Police, instead of protecting us against 
the rapacity of Ontario immigrants, have joined the 
conspiracy against our tranquility. Our wives and our 
daughters are daily insulted. 

" There is only one voice that can gather our dispersed 
population, and that voice is yours. 

'" There is only one man among us who can force the 
Government to listen to our just claims, that man is you. 

'* You cannot refuse to join us ; your intelligence, 
your energy, your influence belong to our unfortunate 
race. To abandon us at this moment would be a 
cowardly act." 

THE 1^0 ICE OF PATRIOTISM. 

Kiel reflected a long time, and yielding at last to his 
friend's entreaties, he decided to join his people and to 
battle once more for their rights. 

Finally, this noble and disinterested man had in liis 
patriotic heart the heroic courage to part from a be- 
loved wife ; and, the day follomng the visit of his 
supplicating countrymen, he tore himself from the caresses 
of his children and the home where he" had been so happy. 

It has been said that Kiel was insane ; if so, his 
insanity was certainly of a sublime nature ! 



AN HISTORICAL COMPARISON. 

His self -abnegation was most stoical, and of the same 
exalted kind as that which made of George Washington 
the father of his country. 

The despotism and oppression inflicted by the English 
Government npon the American colonies, before 1770, 
were the chief motives of that gigantic uprising which 
made of the United States of America the sacred land of 
liberty and one of the greatest countries on earth. It 
was also the persecution and tyranny of England's 
hirelings towards French Half-breeds, that started the 
insurrections of 1869 in Manitoba and of 1885 in the 
Saskatchewan. 

Had Washington failed to accomplish his nol)le and 
laudable object, and had he fallen into the hands of the 
British authorities, he would have mounted the scaifold 
as Eiel did at Regina. 

Had Eiel succeeded— as at one time he came so near 
— in forcing the Dominion Government to come to 
terms, and respect the rights of the Half-breeds, he would 
have been called the Liberator of his country. 

Washington was a successful hero, and the founder of 
the American Nation ; honor to his memory ! 

But, as the name of Washington will hve forever in 
history as the father of the great American people, that 
of Louis David Kiel will exist eternally in French Cana- 



'3 



diaii hearts as that of the heroic martyr who fell ]>ravely 
and noblv for the sacred cause of his conntrv ! 



CONSTITUTIONAL AGITATION AND THE RIGHT OF 
PETITION MET BY MUSKETS. 

From July, 1884, to March, 1885, Eiel travelled all 
over the country, and often addressed the French Half- 
breeds at public meetings. 

He then realized that the reports he had heard about 
the sad state of affairs among his people had not been 
exaggerated. 

Petitions were sent to the Canadian Cabinet, and were 
treated with the same disdain and insulting indifference as 
those sent in 1869. 

The Government answ^ered by increasing the strength 
of the Mounted Police force. 

On the 20th of March, a private dispatch came from i ,0 
Prince Albert, and announced that the insurrection was 
inevitable. 

The Government denied the fact. ^ 

On the 23d of March, another dispatch came from 
the same source statingthat the rebellion had commenced. 
Again the Government organs published an official denial; 
but troops were immediately sent from Winnipeg to 
Prince Albert. 



— 74 -^ 
THE INSURRECTION OF 1885. 

This last rebellion may be summed up as follows : 

In March, Major Crozier, of the Mounted Police 
force, went to Duke Lake, accompanied by his artillery, 
1 and secured by force, fi-om the Metis, a large quantity of 
oats, this commenced the hostilities. 

On the 2d of April, the massacre. by Indians, at Frog 
Lake^j occurred ; from April 24th to May 8th, serious 
engagements took place, and on May 11th, the last battle 
was fought at Batoche. 

On the 15th of May, Kiel surrendered himself, and 
eight days after, he was imprisoned at Regina. 

On the 20th of July, Kiel was tried by Judge Richard- 
son, and pronounced guilty by a jury of six English- 
men. 

On August 1st, he was sentenced to death, the execu- 
tion to take place on the 18th of September. 

His appeal was rejected on the 10th of the same 
month by the Court of the Queens Bench of Manitoba. 

And finally, after four reprieves, the sentence was 
executed on the 

16th of November, 1885, 
at 8.23 A. M. 
Sheriff Chapleau superintending the execution. 



iO 



I shall not attempt to express my personal feelings 
about this execution, which has met with the protesta- 
tions of millions of Christians, I will simply publish the 
opinion of the press on this mournful affair. 

The extracts of newspapers that follow, a7'e only a 
few among thousands that have energetically condemned 
the conduct of Sir John A. MacDonald and his Cabinet. 

The few commentaries I reproduce will speak for 
themselves, and will prove to my readers that the exe- 
cution of Kiel has aroused universal indignation. 



OPINION OF THE PRESS. 



OPINION OF THE PRESS. 



Before the Execution 



III. 

OBSTINACY IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HONOR. 

Tliat Eiel's people had much to complain about is 
clear. They had been cheated, just as we have cheated 
our Indians time and again. They were happy and pros- 
perous before the railroad was projected. Then came a 
train of persecutions, of wrongs, of misrepresentations, 
until the Indian found that he was not wanted. He was 
sore, restless, angry, revengeful. He felt for his knife ; 
he took down his gun. His petitions went into the waste 
basket. He was nothing but an Indian. Then he showed 
that an exasperated Indian knows how to kill his enemy. 
The white man's persistent injustice was the cause of the 
uprising. Of that there is no doubt. 

The first duty of the government is to face this fact. 
It is puerile to condemn Kiel, then to respite him, and 



— 80 — 

then to respite him again, and now to respite him a third 
time. That is cruelty not to be endured by a civilized 
community. Sir John is in a bad predicament ; but if he 
has the courage of his convictions he will not hang Rieh 
Obstinacy is no substitute for honor in these times. — 
iV^. Y. Herald. 

THE AMERICAN VIEW OF THE RIEL CASE. 

/The Central Lavj Journal^ of St, Louis, very perti- 
nently asks, says the N. Y. Herald: "What would an 
American lawyer think of trying a citizen for the crime 
of murder or treason before a court composed of two 
justices of the peace and a jury of six men, without any 
indictment by a grand jury, but on a mere ' charge ' made 
A j * i not even under oath ?" This question put by a represen- 
' '-* tative law periodical carries its own answer. To an 
American lawyer or an American citizen the trial of Kiel 
stands out as a mockery of justice and his sentence as a 



It may fui-tlier be asked : What will be said of Sir 
John MacDonald if he sends Eiel to the gallows after such 
a pretence of a trial, in the face of the jury's recommen- 
dation to mercy, and in spite of the fact that the prisoner 
is mentally irresponsible? He cannot do this witliout 
committing an irretrievable political blunder and sanc- 
tioning an act of gross injustice. 

The sentiment and opinion of this country are against 



— 81 — 

the hanging of E,iel because he has not had such a trial 
as every accused person is entitled to ; because the 'jury 
recommended him to mercy ; because, being of unsound 
mind, he is not criminally responsible, and because it was 
only by a violent stretch of the law that he could be tried 
for treason. The view taken in the United States is un- 



biassed and disinterested. Sir John may well adopt it as 
a safe guide of action. 

RIEUS BLOOD WILL BE ON SIR JOHN'S HANDS. 

"We think that Sir John wishes to save the neck of 
E,iel. He knows that he is a crank. He knows that a 
million and a quarter of Frenchmen believe this and are 
pleading for mercy. Why, then, does he not at once 
commute his sentence? Because the Orangemen of 
Ontario are determined that Riel shall be hanged. They 
hate Kiel's French blood ; they hate Kiel's Catholic 
religion. They are bound to compel Sir John to execute 
him, and threaten the loss of their political influence if 
he refuses. Popular feeling in the Provinces is therefore 
running high. The people are becoming dangerously 
explosive in their expressions of opinion. A perfect 
cyclone of excitement, according to our Montreal cor- 
respondent, is gathering, which Sir John will be powerless 
to control. 

If Sir John is a large man and a brave man and a 
just man, Kiel will not be hanged on Monday. If he is 



If 



s 



— 82— . 

hanged his blood will be on Sir John's hands — 

N. Y. Herald. 

And, later on, we read in the same paper : 

The Province of Quebec is wild with excitement. It 
is better to allay than to still further rouse that excite- 
ment. ]N'ot to hang Kiel, who can be imprisoned for 
life, is more judicious than to kindle the hostility of a 
million and a quarter of the Queen's subjects by hanging 
him. Riel is nothing ; the welfare of the Dominion is 
everything. 

We learn by Mackay-Bennett cable this morning 
that an attempt is being made to petition the Queen in 
Kiel's behalf. A petition has also been sent to Lord 
Lansdowne. Such succor comes, however, too late. Still, 
it confirms the position of the Herald — that Kiel's 
crime should be classed as a political offence, and is not 
punishable by death. 

If Sir John hangs Riel he will deserve the contempt 
of the civilized world. \ 

NOTHING GAINED BY HANGING. 

The Canadian Government will accomplish notliing 
by hanging Riel. Treason may be made odious, but 
clemency is the best agent that can be used against the 
rebellious. Queen Victoria might exercise the royal 
prerogative to good purpose and cable a pardon. It is 



— 83 — 

not Riel, but the cause lie espoused, that appeals for 
consideration . — Baltimore Times. 

"/ WISH TO GOD I COULD CATCH HIM!" 

To-morrow we shall know whether Sir John Mac- 
Donald is a statesman or a mere politician ; whether he 
has concluded to execute Riel in order to purchase 
popularity with the Orangemen, or to do right though 
the heavens fall. 

Sir John, it will be remembered, said some time ago 
of Kiel : " I wish to God I could catch him ! " This, 
however, is not the time for a great man to take revenge 
on a poor crazy Half-breed. The question of Kfe or death 
ought to be settled by the verdict of the jury, and that 
contained a recommendation to mercy. Sir John should 
not forget this fact. — N, Y. Herald. 

CANADA STATESMANSHIP AT FAULT. 

It is impossible to regard Kiel as an ordinary criminal, 
as merely a malefactor who is about to pay with his life 
his offences against the criminal law of the land. He was 
the representative and leader of a great number of men 
who felt and believed that they had just cause of com- 
plaint, and that Kiel was doing no more than any other 
man suffering under bad laws, and bad practices under 
bad laws would have done under like circumstances. To 





84 



hang Riel will be to make a martyr of liim, and now is 
not the time to hold any one up to view in the Dominion 
as an innocent sufferer for political offences. It does not 
require a very high order of statesmanship to see that 
the execution of Kiel will be a political blunder of the 
first class, and yet the same blunder may be committed, 
because Canadian statesmanship is not able to treat with 
common-sense the plainest of questions. — Washington 
Post. 

WILL CANADIANS SUBMIT TO SUCH AN ATROCIOUS 
USE OF INFLUENCE? 



The Canadians are not made of the stuff we think 
they are if they tamely submit to such an atrocious use 
of influence. Two things are perfectly clear — that the 
jury's recommendation to mercy should take precedence 
1 of Sir John's private interests, and that Sir John himself 
should be held to a direct responsibility for the outrages 
in the ]^orth-west. When the case of Kiel has been dis- 
posed of Sir John's case should come up for investi- 
gation. 

JUDGMENT OF CIVILIZED MANKIND IF KIEL IS HANGED. 

If it is indeed true that Sir John Macdonald and his 
colleagues insist on sacrifice without mercy, they may 
make the name of Louis Kiel what those of Louis- 
Joseph Papineau and William Lyon Mackenzie but 




— 85 — 

barely failed of being — a name for the foes of British 
rule in Canada to ''conjure with" forever. 

SIR JOHN RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL. 

Kiel should have his sentence commuted, and Sir 
John, as the prime cause of the rebellion, should be 
requested to resign at once. Sir John may be obstinate, 
but he has been in the wrong for years ; he is in the 
wrong to-day, and if he hangs Kiel he will hang him for 
crimes for which he is personally responsible. — New 
York Herald. 

MUCH IN EXTENUATION. 

There is much of extenuation for the rebellion in the 
condition of the Half-breeds and the treatment they were 
subjected to by the Canadian government. This ought 
to weigh with the ministry to prevent them from com- 
mitting a crime greater than RieVs. The example of the \ 
United States at the close of the war, too, of which lead- 
ing republicans are especially proud, ought not to be lost 
upon the Canadians, particularly when, if followed, it 
will allay the race prejudice now manifesting itself so 
passionately. — Memphis Appeal, 

A COSTLY BLUNDER THREATENED. 

Sir John A. MacDonald will make one of the most 



iu 



<!< 



— 86 — 

costly mistakes of the century if lie hangs Kiel. — Wash- 
ington Republican. 

HE WILL DIE A MARTYR. 

He will die a martyr and his memory will ever be 
cherished by the poor Half-breeds whose cause he 
espoused, not successfully it is true, but with the convic- 
tion that right was on their side. — Hartford Post. 

DEFIANCE OF CIVILIZED SENTIMENT. 

K his sentence is carried into effect, if Sir John A. 
MacDonald persists in sending Kiel to the scaffold, it w^ill 
be in defiance of the sentiment of Americans and Eng- 
lishmen. — Boston Transcript. 

SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY. 

England will show short-sighted policy if she hangs 
Kiel, and it is to be hoped that a wise discretion will fin- 
ally decide to commute his punishment to imprisonment 
alone. — Austin Statesman (Texas). 

A SOLEMN PREDICTION. 

Kiel is a poor creature who will not be missed from 
earth, but the day of his execution will be one that the 



— 87 — 

Canadian government will long have occasion to remem- 
ber as one of the most unfortunate events of its history. 
Marie the "prediotion. — ^^i^. Paul Globe. 



After the Execution 



THE REVIVAL OF RACE ANTIPATHY IN CANADA. 

The circumstances of Kiel's execution, as they are 
described in our special despatches, says the New Torh 
Herald^ were in harmony with the course the Canadian 
authorities had pursued toward him from the moment 
of his capture. He was hanged in a loft lighted by/ 
one small window, through which the early sunshine; 
struggled dimly, and by some flickering candles in| 
the hands of the ministering priests. One of them 
chanted the Lord's Prayer aloud, and the drop fell 
between the words "Lead us not into temptation" 
and "Deliver us from evil." No friend was suffered 
to attend the victim. But though he was solitary among 



)i 



— 88 — 

enemies he did not falter in the presence of death. 
He kept the promise tliat had been seduced from him to 
make no " dying speech." Whatever he was before those 
final moments, in them he was brave and faithful. Can 
as much be said of the Sheriff, if the report be true, that 
he accepted the services of a man to spring the trap who 
solicited that base office to gratify a personal malice ? Or 
can as much be said of one of the priests present on the 
scaffold, if the report be true, that he was a secret agent 
of Sir John A. MacDonald to shut Kiel's mouth ? 

Well, the deed is done, and the merciless government 
of the Marquis of Lansdowne invites the judgment of 
the world on its wisdom. Our prediction is that few 
years will roll by before those who have done it will 
comprehend and confess that by converting Riel from a 
lunatic to a martyr they have long retarded the recon- 
ciliation of races and the fusion of the Canadians into 
one harmonious people, l^or is the probability to be 
ignored that the hanging of Kiel will impress the present 
generation of Canadians of French descent with an un- 
conquerable conviction that reconciliation and fusion can 
never be accomplished so long as Canada remains a 
British possession. . . . . ... 

What can the Marquis of Lansdowne say of his achieve- 
ments toward harmonizing and fusing the Canadians, 
French and English ? In answer to this question see the 
flags at half-mast and the emblems of mourning for Kiel, 
whose display is described in our special despatches from 



89 



the principal cities of the Dominion ; and read the sub- 
stantially unanimous opinion of the million and a half 
Canadians of French descent, well and concisely expressed 
in n Etendard^ of Montreal : — 

" Rie] sliould not have been hanged. Because he was 
" not responsible for his acts. Because he had not a fair 
" trial. Because the verdict of the jury did not justify 
" the government in signing the warrant for the execution. 
" And because his crime was a political offence." 



AN EXECUTION WHICH WILL TEND TO STRENGTHEN 
THE MOVEMENT FOR SEPARATION. 

Dublin, ~^oy. 1Y, 1885. — The news of Eiel execution, 
cabled to Dublin, Ireland, has naturally excited great 
feeling against the English authorities. Mr. Gray, M. P., 
in his newspaper, the Freeman^ s Journal, says : — 
"Everything was done to exasperate the sympathisers of 
Kiel. His trial was a judicial mockery of which any free 
nation ought to be ashamed. It was not denounced, as 
under any other circumstances it certainly would have 
been, because few had any doubt that the capital sentence 
would be commuted. We cannot pretend to guess at the 
policy which guided Sir John A. MacDonald in hunting 
Kiel to death in face of French Canadian opinion against 
that course, and we are mistaken if it does not indirectly 
tend to strengthen the movement for separation which 



— 90 — 

influential papers like the Montreal Daily Post so 
strenuously advocate." 

ALMOST A SACRED PERSON. 

The London evening press is not so bloodthirsty about 
Kiel as the morning papers. The Pall Mall Gazette 
gays : — The execution of political prisoners is, as all true 
statesmen have taught us, worse than a blunder. The 
life of Kiel is in itself neither more nor less valuable 
than the single life of any of the hundreds who died at 
his bidding, but a leader who embodies the hopes and 
convictions of thousands becomes almost a sacred person, 
and the hangman's touch revolts the feelings of his fol- 
lowers as sacrilege does the feelings of the religious.'' 

LOVE FOR HIS COUNTRY. 

The London Echo, edited by a member of Karliaraent, 
concludes : " Kiel was a weak and not a very courageous 
man, but, misguided as he was, we believe him to have 
been, hke his father before him — moved to play the part 
he did by love for his country. The government of 
the Dominion would have stood better in the eyes of the 
world to-day had it spared his Hfe." 

A NATIONAL DISGRACE. 

The Toronto Globe says editorially : 

" Another act of the terrible tragedy closed on Mon- 



— 91 — 

day morning, and on the 27th, it is said, eight Indians 
will be hanged. All those horrors might have been 
avoided if Sir John A.MacDonald had done his duty as 
Minister of the Interior and as a Premier of Canada. 
There would have been no rebellion, and Canada would 
have been spared all this dreadful loss of life, which is 
a national disgrace, and which appears to be a national 
judgment." 



THE PRESS OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. 

STRONG DENUNCIATION OF THE ACTION OF THE GOVERN- 
MENT — A POLITICAL BLUNDER. 

That the hanging of Riel was received with grave 
dissatisfaction by the majority of the inhabitants of the 
city of Quebec is undoubted. The press and the most 
trusty public men condemn the execution as being both .^ 
apolitical blunder and a cruel_crime. Le Canadien oi - 

Quebec voices the sentimeli^t"'^ thousands of people in 
the Province in the following editorial : 

" The blood shed on the scaffold at Kegina is a bad 
"cement, and if the confederation has no other to keep 
"it together, then the gale which will tumble the whole 
"fabric to pieces is not far distant. As a young country, 
" too, we have set to the world the bad example of punish- 



1/ Illy 



— 92 — 

ing with death that class of offences known as political, 
which all other civilized commnnities condone ; a coiin- 
^' try, also, in which the power of life or death is swayed 
'^ by factions is not likely to be regarded as a safe or 
" desirable one to live in. We are asked on all hands : 
" ' What are the French Canadian Ministers doing V Our 
" reply is short. Sir Hector Langevin and Mr. Chapleau 
" have been vanquished, but they liave not deemed it 
" opportune to resign. Whatever line of conduct they 
" followed their responsibility was immense. They have 
" chosen the line mentioned. Their position is exception- 
" ally painful and difficult. Let us not repudiate them 
" without hearing their explanations." 

L Evenement^ also of Quebec, in its editorial com- 
ments, says : 

'' We counsel calmness in the terrible crisis which we 
^' are traversing. Calmness has an imposing power when 
" it is accompanied by the determination to obtain justice, 
" to avenge an outrage on the first favorable opportunity. 
"The future waited for coolly, patiently, is always 
" pregnant with such opportunities. The scaffold at 
" Regina is an outrage upon tlie renown of the British 
1^ Empire. Riel has been executed against thej^ya^jof— - 
*' nations, in obedience to Orangeism, whicli puts in pei*il 
"to-day one of the richest jewels of the British crown." 



— 93 — 

La Presse of Montreal says of Hiel : — 

"He will pass into the ranks of martyrs and become ^ YiA 
" an object of veneration and an example to others eager ' ^ 
" to imitate his career. If he had merely been kept in 
'* confinement he would have passed in a few months into /f 

" obscurity." 

The Presse reminds its readers of the monuments 
erected to the victims of 1837, while of those who escaped, 
some became high public functionaries, members of Par- 
liament, ministers of the Crown, and even received Eng- 
lish baronetcies, as Sir L. H. Lafontaine and Sir Geo. E. 
Cartier, for instance, who were principals in the revolu- 
tions of 1837-38. 

The Monde, the organ of Sir Hector Langevin, the 
Minister of Public Works, who was too cowardly to 
resign his seat in the Cabinet, citing the judgment of 
Mgr. Grandin — " Free, Kiel is dangerous ; hanged, his 
name would be a danger" — says : — 

" These words seem to strike the right note. We are 
^' not of those w^ho consider Kiel a national hero or a pure 
" and disinterested patriot. To our eyes the aureole of 
" the martyr and apostle does not radiate from his brow. 
" But whatever may be our conviction as to the role and 
" character of Louis Kiel, we are strongly inclined to ad- | ^ 
" here to the opinion of Mgr. Grandin, that it would have ] I a 
" been alike dangerous to hang him and to set him at 
"liberty." ' . ,j 




— 94 — 

H Etendavd of Montreal sajs : 

" On November 16, 1869, was the burial of Guibord 
" in the Catholic Cemetery, and on November 16, 1885, 
"the hanging of Louis Kiel at Eegina. It is suggested 
" here that a monument be erected to Kiel, and that the 
" Quebec Legislature vote a sum for the maintenance of 
"his widow and children." 

UElecteur^ the organ of the Quebec French liberals, 
has the following : 

" This is for us a day of national sorrow ; for, this 
i^-morjiing's, murder, signifies the trijimph of Orangemen 
" over French Canadians and Catholics." 

HIGHLY IMPOLITIC. 
\ 






7 



The London Daily News sajs : " As a general rule 
executions for high treason seem to us highly impolitic. 
They invest the victim with the halo of martyrdom and 
often revive animosities which would otherwise die 
out." 

THE TRIBUTE OF A PAID TOOL. 

The Quehec Chr<mieley a paid organ of the Ottawa 
Cabinet, mildly approves of RieFs execution as the fitting 
termination of a fair and open trial and a just desert of 
repeated deeds of murder, bloodshed, revolt and rapine. 



— 95 — 



THE PARIS PRESS. 

LOUIS KIEL DEAD MORE DANGEROUS THAN LOUIS RIEL ALIVE. 

The Paris correspondent of the N. Y. Herald^ 
telegraphed, on the ITth of November, as follows : 

^' I lind that a strong anti-English feeling exists this 
evening in all the political parties here respecting the 
execution of Eiel. M.Jgochefo]rt_sajs : 

" In assassinating judicially the heroic chief of the 
*' Canadian Metis, England has not only committed a politi- 
" cal fault but une infdmie. She will discover too late 
" that Louis Kiel dead is infinitely more dangerous than 
" Louis Kiel living." 

THE HOUR or VENGEANCE. 

The Figaro has the longest comments on the case. 
Its editorial concludes : 

" It is hardly probable that Lord Lansdowne, who either 
" could not or would not pardon Kiel, can understand the 
" effect that will be produced by the odious act that he 
" has sanctioned. The French Canadians form an im- 
" portant group in the Parliament at Ottawa, and his 
" accounting with them must come sooner or later. As 
^•to the Metis and Indian tribes, they can, when the 
^' occasion arises, undertake cruel reprisals. The savages 
" know how to await the hour of vengeance, and they 



— 96 



" will never forget what occurred this morning at Re- 
"gina." 

THE WEDGE OF DISCORD DRIVEN DEEPLY INTO 
THE BODY POLITIC. 



The Telegraph expresses the opinions of a large 
section of moderate minds in the community as follows : 

" Thus ends the last chapter in a checkered and stormy 
life. On its last page the hangman has written his 
"ignominious ^7125, and human justice is supposed to be 
"satisfied. It would be well for the Dominion if the 
" volume really closed here and could be put away ever 
"out of sight and out of mind. But we fear that this is 
" an impossibility. In the eyes of thousands — nay, mil- 
lions — not alone of his fellow countrymen, but of men 
" of all races and climes, Kiel, the unsuccessful rebel, has 
" crowned a career of patriotic struggle for the rights of 
" men with the aureole of the martyr. In their estimation 
"he has died the victim of a train of circumstances 
begotten of misgovernment, religious bigotry, national 
prejudices and revenge, while to make matters worse 
in their opinion he has been forced to the scaffold with- 
out the use of those senses which could alone justify 
the infliction of the death penalty upon even the most 
"hardened criminal, thus adding a further and still more 
" indelible disgrace to the Canadian name. It will readily 




MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, 
Governor General of the Dominion of Canada. 



97 



•^ be seen that the prevalence of such a current of sym- 
" pathetic feeling with the unfortunate man who suffered 
"to-day is not the best guarantee in the world for the 
" continuance of those harmonious relations between tlie 
" different elements and Provinces of the Confederation 
'^ which are so essential to its peace and prosperity. The 
" wedge of discord has been, so to speak, driven deeply 
*' into the quivering flesh of the body politic, and heaven 
" only knows where the trouble will end. The execution 
" of Kiel marks the starting point on a very perilous path, 
" with one portion of the Canadian population regarding 
"the tragic event as the fit conclusion to a turbulent, 
" murderous and rebellious career, and the other portion 
" viewing it as the martyrdom of a hero and a patiiot, 
" whose only crime was to have been of their blood, and 
" to have loved his poor, down-trodden fellow countrymen 
" in the North-west too well. It will be admitted, we 
" think, that the outlook for the future is not encouraging. 
" A wound has been sustained that will rankle and fester 
"for years to come, but let us hope that calmness, judg- 
" ment and discretion may prevail with every one, and 
"that we may say, as President Lincoln said in his 
"memorable speech at Gettysburg, that 'this nation 
" under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that 
" government of the people, by the people and for the 
" people shall not perish from the earth.' " 



— 98 



S/R JOHN'S MOTIVES. 



The editor of the Courrier des Etats-Unis, of New 
York, denounces Sir John's conduct in unsparing terms. 
'-' The circumstances surrounding this political drama 
have no precedent in history," he said to a Herald 
reporter. " I cannot recall an instance in which a sen- 
tence of death has been carried out in the face of so 
many and so powerful protests. It is hardly necessary 
to say that this execution was not a punisliment for 
crime, as crimes of that sort are not punished by 
death nowadays, but a political speculation. And the 
latest revelations seem to prove that it was an act of 
obedience to an irresistible secret power, and that Sir 
John was bound to execute Ttiel in order to please the 
Orange faction. If this hypothesis be true — and it seems 
to be so — the act is even a blacker one than it otherwise 
would have been. It would make Sir John not only the 
representative of an implacable hatred between the races, 
but an instrument of secular fanaticism. It can be readily 
seen, however, that Sir John would be deceived in his 
calculations, and would not receive as much support as 
he expected. Not only the French Canadians, but the 
Irish Catholics, will be opposed to him. Another re- 
markable fact is that not only was the government very 
strongly importuned to change the death sentence, but 
the sentence itself was not justified by Kiel's acts. The 
jury saw that and rQCOmmended him to mercy. How 



— 99 — 

many examples are there in history of men who have 
taken up arms against the established government and 
received either a pardon or a nominal punishment ? Look 
at Jefferson Davis, Bazaine, Arabi Pacha or Cetewayo. 
It was reserved for the Canadian government to revive 
this barbarous custom, which has been condemned by 
modern civilization. 

''That history will reveal Sir John's motives is very 
certain. It will then be seen that not only political, 
but personal reasons constrained him to act in this 
manner. It will be said that he felt his power lessening, 
and found it necessary to strike a decisive blow in order 
to assure the British government of his devotion, and 
with the ultimate object of obtaining the government of 
the Indies, a peerage and a place among the counsellors 
of the Crown." 

WILL THERE BE ANOTHER INSURRECTION? 

If the Canadian government could hang the land 
speculators who furnished the misguided followers of 
Kiel with their guns and ammunition, they would do a 
good thing. It looks as though the execution of Kiel 
might furnish an opportunity for speculators to get up 
another insurrection before long, and they may be more 
fortunate in their choice of a general — New Haven 
Register, 



— 100 — 
A LEGAL MURDER. 

Every French Canadian will feel that a legal murder 
has been done, and the execution will therefore tend to 
increase the hostility which exists between this class of 
the people and the other subjects of the Queen in Canada. 
There were real grievances behind the uprising which 
Riel headed, and England could well afford to show a 
little humanity to the unfortunate Half-breed leader. — 
Hartford Post. 

THE EXECUTION OF RIEL. 

Eiel met his fate bravely, without showing either 
timidity or bravado. His demeanor will doutbless increase 
the resentment which his sentence has inspired not only 
among the Half-breeds of the North-west, but among the 
whole French population of Lower Canada 

The appeal to Executive clemency in Kiel's case owed 
all its force to the consideration that the Government had 
oppressed and outraged the people whose leader Riel 
became. The rebellion came very near being justified 
when the Government, in consequence of it, took steps 
to inquire into and redress the grievances of the settlers, 
which it had not taken before the rebellion broke out, 
and which there is no reason to believe it would ever 
have taken but for the rebellion. With this admission 
made, the question for the Canadian Government became 



101 



the twofold question whether Kiel was so dangerous a 
character that it would not do to leave him alive, and 
whether the enmitj to the Government which his execu- 
tion would excite was so trifling that it could safely be 

disregarded 

The execution of Riel, followed by the excitement 
attending the outbreak of smallpox in Lower Canada, has 
embittered tlie French population against the English 
more than any other event of recent years. The estab- 
lishment of friendly or even of tolerant relations between 
the two races will now be extremely difficult, and without 
such relations the lot of the Ministry, of whatever party, 
will be one of endless perplexities. — New York Times. 

THE EXECUTION OF RIEL. 

Louis Kiel, the leader of the Canadian Half-breed 
rebellion, was hanged yesterday at Regina, JSTorth-west 
Territory. He had been convicted of high treason, and 
for that offense sentenced to death. During the weeks 
that have elapsed since sentence was passed upon him the 
Canadian people have been divided into two factions, 
one clamoring for his blood and the other protesting 
against his execution. 

An appeal in Kiel's behalf was made to the English 
government, but the Ministry refused to interfere, and 
there has been a similar division of opinion in England. 
In this country less interest has been felt in the case 



— 102 — 

than the excitement over it manifested by some of our 
newspapers would lead one to believe. Nevertheless, the 
general feeling has been one of sympathy with the 
condemned man. 

This is due to no conviction that Riel was right, or 
that his rebellion was justified, but to an aversion on the 
part of Americans generally to the infliction of the death 
penalty for political oifenses. This man, who headed an 
insurrection in a distant Canadian Province, which at no 
time threatened the peace and safety of the Dominion, is 
tried and hanged as a traitor. Contrast this with the 
conduct of our own government which, at the close of a 
great rebellion that threatened its very existence, made no 
attempt to punish any of those who had taken up arms 
against it. 

The result in our case has been a gradual disappearance 
of the passions of the civil war, and the turning of ninety- 
nine hundredths of the governement's recent enemies 
into stanch and loyal supporters. The opposite course in 
Canada will make Riel a martyr, and perpetuate and wid^n 
the breach caused by his trial and conviction. 

We fear that the Canadian government not only lacks 
magnanimity, but political sagacity. — New Yorh Star. 

THE CANADIAN HANGING. 

The Canadian Government has executed Riel on the 
gallows. It ought not to have done so for two reasons. 



— 103 — 

First, the Government, by its offer to settle with the 
'' rebels " in the North-west Territory after the latter had 
taken up arms, and by its admission that the Half-breed 
residents had been wronged and w^ere entitled to redress, 
precluded itself from exacting the extreme penalty of the 
law^ for the offense and made the hanging of the leader an 
act of cruelty and tyranny. Next, because the mind of 
the prisoner was evidently unhinged and no proper 
examination was made to ascertain if he was morally 
responsible for his acts. 

The execution was as impolitic as it was brutal. 
There is every reason to suppose that the Government 
feared the political resentment of that portion of the 
population which clamored for Kiel's blood. Perhaps 
it was thought that the " English " sentiment at home 
would be offended if mercy should be shown to the victim. 
But the anger of the French portion of the Canadian 
population is much more likely to be dangerous than the 
bluster of those who would be satisfied with nothing less 
than the poor creature's death. It w^ill be surprising if 
the Government is not made in the end to see the folly 
of its course and to pay heavily for its blunder. 

Kiel's crime was of course one of a serious character, 
against which a nation has the right to protect itself by 
severe penalties. But a Government's hands must be 
clear of injustice and the offense be without justification 
to warrant extreme measures in such a case. If it had 
not been admitted that the Half-breeds are serious and 



— 104 — 

cruel wrong to complain of, and if Kiel liad been a man 
of sound mind and vigorous intellect, the execution would 
have been justifiable. As it is, it was a brutal and 
revengeful act and an indication of cowardice and weak- 
ness instead of an exhibition of firmness on the part of 
the Government. — New York World. 

CANADA REPUDIATES THE CRIME. 

[ The Montreal Post, the representative organ of 
the Irish element in the Province of Quebec, edited by 
Mr. H. J. Cloran, whose talent is only surpassed by his 
enlightened patriotism, has untiringly worked in the 
good cause, and written, both before and after Eiel's 
execution, some very remarkable articles, extracts from 
which we should have liked to make more extensive if 
our space was not necessarily limited.] 

" Louis Riel, the leader of two rebellions raised in the 
interest of justice and right, and on behalf of the oppress- 
ed Half-breeds and pioneer settlers of the Canadian 
North-west, was hanged this morning at Regina. He 
bowed his head to the murderous manipulation of the 
hangman with as much grace and fortitude as Sir John 
and his colleagues submitted with cowardice and pusila- 
nimity to the blood-thirsty dictation of the Orange demon, 
which has been seeking to destroy the chief of the Metis 
during the past fifteen years. To the scandal of the 
civilized world, and to the injury of the Canadian 



— 105 — 

Confederation, Eiel has been made to suffer for a deed 
committed during the first rebellion, and for wicli he 
was pardoned bj the same hand that to-day signed his 
death warrant. The cause and the people which Eiel 
represented made his life sacred. In himself he may 
have heen nothing ; and his death, as an individual, 
would not have disturbed the peace and harmony of the 
people. But Kiel's identification and association with a 
cause, universally recognized to be a just one, gave him 
that inviolability which modern civilization has decreed 
to be the part and right of a political prisoner. Our 
government has shamefully and for the basest of pur- 
poses violated that decree. And that violation the people 
of Canada owe it to themselves and to the fair name of 
their country to repudiate and condemn by flinging from 
power the men whose hands are stained with the blood 
of Eiel." 

Later on, the Post^ proofs in hand, exposed the machina- 
tions of Orangeism against Eiel in the following terse 
manner : 

ORANGEISM THE MAIN FACTOR IN RIEl's HANGING. 

There are now loud protestations in Ontario that the 
Orangemen of that Province did not bring any influence 
to bear upon the Government to hang Louis Eiel, and 
made no threats against Sir John if the execution did not 
take place. It looks as if those who clamored for Eiel's 
death and those who ordered it have become frightened at 



106 



their own work. The Toronto Mail denies emphatically 
that there was any demand for his blood by the Orangemen, 
or that he was hanged to glut their vengeance. These 
denials and protestations come too late. What is written 
in black and white cannot be so easily effaced. The fact 
remains that Riel was butchered to make an Orange 
holiday. We prove what we say by quoting the resolutions 
passed by Orange Lodges, the speeclies made by Orange 
leaders, and the articles written by the Orange organ of 
the Orange Association. Let the Canadian people — 
English, Scotch, Irish and French — judge between these 
Orange protestations of to-day, that they wanted none of 
Riel's blood, and their bloodthirsty, seditious and revoln- 
tionary cries before the perpetration of the foul deed, 
that, if Eiel was not hung, " the day w^as not far distant 
when a call to arms would resound throughout the 
Dominion." 

Let our readers, and all those who are opposed to 
Orangeism and its dark and evil doings, meditate like all 
good Canadian citizens ujpon the following sentiments 
which prepared the way for the iniquitous execution of 
Louis Riel : — 

THE BLACK KNIGHTS CONCUR. 

'' At Peterborough, Out.,, the following resolution 
' was unanimously carried at a meeting of the Black 



— 107 



" Knights of Ireland on Wednesday evening, November 

"lltli: — 

" ' That, having heard read from the chair the follow- 
" ing resolutions passed by Loyal Orange Lodge No. 80 :— 
" ' That in the present condition of Ireland, we the 
** assembled members of L. O. L. No. 80, believe it to be 
" the duty of all Protestants to join together to oppose 
" the advance of the so-called Nationalists (Parnelhtes) 
'' and to show a nnited front against sedition and anarchy.' 
" ' That this L. O. L., No. 80, sees with regret the 
" obstacles that are being put forward to prevent the 
" rebel Kiel from paying the just penalty of his many 
'' crimes on the scaffold, and that this lodge is of opinion 
" that no further respite should be granted him, but that 
" he should suffer the extreme penalty of the law and be 
"hanged in fullihnent of the sentence passed upon him.' 
a i y^Q o-ive the same our hearty commendation and 
" support, and that copies of this resolution be sent to Sir 
" John A. MacDonald, the Orange Sentinel, the Toronto 
" Mail and the local papers.' " 

Thus were the Orange lodges engaged in forcing Sir 
John A. MacDonald to close his ears to the petitions for 
mercy which was so strongly recommended by the jury, 
and to practice a most unpardonable piece of deception 
upon the members of this Province, who were previously 
assured that Puel's life would be spared. 

Now, as to the oratorical efforts of the Orange leaders 
to compel the Government to yield to their demands for 



108 



vengeance and for blood. At an Orange gathering in 
Toronto on Kov. 6th, one of the speakers exclaimed : — 

" And shall Eiel, this arch-rebel, go free whilst loyal 
'^ men have stained the ground with their blood to uphold 
" the Queen's authority ? Never. (Loud applause). And 
" the sooner the Government of Sir John MacDonald 
'' understand the true feeling of Orangemen on this 
" question the better. I was pleased to notice in the 
" speeches of County Master Somers, District Master 
" Wilson, and Brothers Graham and Low, the determi- 
" nation expressed that if the Government allows Rome 
" to step in on this occasion and secure a reprieve for this 
" arch-traitor, the Conservative party can no longer 
" count on their services, although they have worked and 
" voted for them for many years." 

That extract is worth meditating upon. It is the 
repetition of the cry that was raised at all the Orange 
gatherings in many parts of Ontario. 

Coming down to the official organ of the Orange body 
it will be seen that that worthy journal does not allow 
itself to be eclipsed, although enjoying the calm and peace 
of an editorial sanctnm, by resolutions or speeches. The 
week before the execution, when there was so much 
uncertainty as to Kiel's fate, the Orange Sentinel^ speak- 
ing on behalf of the Orange Association, made a final 
appeal, a supreme effort, to put an end to the wavering 
of Sir John and his colleagues and to settle the question 



109 



of hanging Kiel. Here his that effort of the Orange 
Sentinel : — 

" Shall the atrocious injustice be committed of per- 
" mitting this artful rebel to go free while his dupes and 
a tQo]g — the unfortunate, untutored and misled Indians— 
'' are hanged for participation in acts which they regard as 
" praiseworthy and heroic, instead of criminal? The people 
'' of Canada will require unequivocal answers to these 
" straightforward questions, if Kiel be reprieved ; and 
" the only answer w^e judge that can be truthfully given 
" is that the Frenchmen of Quebec rule in the Dominion 
'' Parhament, and have vowed that not a hair of Kiel's 
" head shall be harmed. Was it to this end, then, that 
" our gallant volunteers sprang to arms and laid down 
"their lives at their country's call? Shall Frenchmen 
" who sympathise with the rebels be permitted to undo 
"their work? If so, let it be known throughout this 
" land. Let it be proclaimed that the rights and liberties 
" of Britons in an English colony hang only upon the 
" breath of an aheu race. But English Canadians will 
" not longer suffer the galling bondage ; and the day may 
"not be far distant when the call to arms will again 
" resound throughout the Dominion. Then, indeed, our 
" soldiers, profiting by the lessons of the past, must com- 
" plete a w^ork throughout the whole land only begun in 
" the North-west." 

Here is a band of men who call themselves loyal 
citizens, proclaiming to the world that if the Canadian 



— 110 — 

Government dared to adopt a policy of clemency, recom- 
mended by Kiel's jury, dictated by humanity and ci\nliza- 
tion, and petitioned for by the people, they would lift the 
standard of revolt and declare for civil war. Are these 
the men to rule this country and guide its destinies. We 
say no ! and the voice of the Dominion will say no ! 
Orangeism must ])e squelched. — The Montreal Daily Post. 

THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. 

The Irish Catholics of Canada have in the grave crisis 
through which this country is passing a serious duty to 
perform. The French Canadian people, feeling that a 
gross outrage has been done the country in general, and 
their own race in particular, have risen in their might to 
insist upon the obliteration forever from our politics of 
that Orange influence which demanded and procured the 
head of poor Eiel. Is there aught of wrong in this ? 
Have ever people so cruelly outraged, wronged and 
insulted, shown such moderation, such consideration for 
the feelings of other classes, such a determination to 
proceed by purely constitutional means ? We have follow- 
ed with closest scrutiny every action and movement of 
the French people in this crisis, and we stand to-day, we 
must confess it, in profound admiration of their lofty 
patriotism, their noble self-control, and their unswerving 
loyalty to the constitution. What do they ask ? Do they 
seek the dismemberment of Confederation ? They do not. 



Ill 



Do they seek a war of races and of religion ? Thej do 
not. Do tliej seek to establish French domination ? They 
do not. Do the J seek to rob their Protestant or English- 
speaking fellow-citizens of any of the rights these latter 
enjoy under the constitution ? They do not. What is it 
then they do seek ? They seek the destruction as a 
political power of a faction whose existence in this free 
country is a disgrace to the age. They seek, by means 
just and fair, the vindication of their race, so foully 
wronged by the killing of Eiel because his death has been 
decreed in the secrecy of Orange lodges. They seek, in 
tine, the acknowledgment of those rights guaranteed them 
by the constitution, but now threatened by Orange 
violence and aggression. This crisis had in some way 
to come. Its results will, if the French Canadians 
persevere in their legal and constitutional agitation, ex- 
hibiting the same regard for law and order and for the 
rights of every other class of the population, that now 
characterizes their movement, be a most happy one for 
Confederation. What then should be the precise position 
of Irish Catholics in this crisis ? They should not, in our 
estimation, take part in or encourage illegal or violent 
manifestations of any kind calculated to incite class 
against class or race against lace. They should not 
express admiration for rebels or rebellions merely because 
the rebels are mostly Catholics and the rebellion headed 
by Catholics, nominal or otherwise. They must not forget 
that the Catholic Church, as an organization, was a heavy 



— 112 — 

loser by Kiel's uprising — priests murdered, missions laid 
waste, faithful and clergy dispersed. But they can lend 
and will, we are sure, lend hearty sympathy to their brave 
and patriotic French fellow-citizens, to whom the minori- 
ties in Ontario and the ISTorth-west are indebted for their 
Catholic schools, to whom in other regards the Irish 
Catholics of Canada are under many lasting obligations, 
profound sympathy in their humiliation and sorrow. Nor 
will they join, whatever their individual view as to the 
wisdom or unwisdom of such a course, in any anti-French 
cry that may be raised, if the clergy and people of Lower 
Canada decide on the formation of a French national 
party for the giving of full expression to their views in 
the singular political revolution brought about by RieFs 
execution. And they are heart and hand with the French 
Canadians in laying down and maintaining the principle 
that Orangemen must not, as such, be permitted to ex- 
ercise the slightest semblance of control over the Govern- 
ment of this country. In one word, let our people, 
however intense their feelings, be guided by prudence 
and moderation, heeding in all regards the good counsel 
of their clergy. Every good citizen, be he of Irish, 
Scotch, English or German origin, ardently hopes for the 
advent of the day, when no one of our political parties 
will feel tied down by alliance with any politico-religious 
society, but when our statesmen, rising to the height of 
their position and placing duty before expediency, will 
rule Canada for Canadians, not setting race against race, 



— 113 — 

Province against Province, but striving by every means in 
their power to build up here, in this part of the Northern 
continent on the basis of justice, equality and freedom, a 
new nation whose power shall be the glory of its people 
and whose progress shall be the admiration of the 
world. — Catholic Record^ of London, Ontario. 

MISGOVERNMENT AND REBELLION. 

The^Ministry will not be allowed to avail themselves 
of any side issue as a means of escape from responsibility 
for the evils caused by their misgovernment. All the 
bloodshed, all the destruction of property, all the waste of 
public money, all the sufferings of the Metis, and all the 
ill-feeling which fills the land, are the direct results of 
their misgovernment. There would have been no rebel- 
lion if there had been no oppression, no robbery, no ill- 
treatment of the honest and peaceful Half-breeds. Sir 
Alexander and Mr. Chapleau deny that the Half-breeds 
had any grievances ; but such a denial is perfectly futile 
in view of the proceedings of the Scrip Commission, 
which was set to work the moment the Metis appeared 
in arms. They had vainly petitioned for redress during 
the past seven years. Their clergy had fruitlessly appealed 
to the Government on their behalf. These petitions kept 
pouring in from every settlement in the North-west, and 
demanded only simple justice, but they were treated with 
scorn. An answer was not even vouchsafed. Instead of 



-114 — 

receiving protection, Ottawa kept on increasing the num- 
ber of intruders, until the suffering Half-breeds were 
driven from their lands and their homes. Mgr. Grandin, 
the venerable Bishop of St. Albert, added his influence 
and efforts to the work of trying to open the ejes of Sir 
John to the seriousness and gravity of the situation. His 
Lordship made every effort, by voice and pen, to solicit 
the Government to act equitably towards the Metis. But 
to petitions, prayers, letters and delegations, the Half- 
breeds received nothing but contemptuous silence from 
Ottawa. 

To use Henry Grattan's memorable words : *' The trea- 
'' son of the Ministers against the liberties of the people 
" was infinitely worse than the rebellion of the people 
" against the Ministers." That is the whole situation in a 
nutshell, and that is the situation Sir John and his Minis- 
ters will have to face when they come to reckon with the 
representatives of the people, or, if those prove false on 
the floor of the House, with the people themselves at the 
ballot-box. 

The wonder is that the Half-breeds stood the oppres- 
sion so long without taking up arms before they did. A 
Halifax contemporary, looking at the sufferings and the 
indignities to which the Half-breeds were subjected, asks : 
" Is there a parish in Nova Scotia that would have toler- 
'* ated a similar outrage ? We thank Heaven that no body 
" of men so craven could be found within the limits of 
" this whole Province. These men at Batoche stood to 



115 



" their arms, and in a few weeks after the first shot was 
" fired they had achieved everything for which they liad 
"struggled. Louis Kiel was but their leader— assuming 
" the leadership at the urgent request of the Half-breeds. 
" Because he placed himself at the head of the rebellion, 
" in the interests of the people, and to secure their lands 
" and guard their churches and tombs, he is sent to the 
" scaffold as a malefactor." 

That is the view taken of the rebellion by the 
mass of the people. It is common to the entire Con- 
federation. A Toronto contemporary said that if men 
of English blood had been in a position like to that 
of the Half-breeds, " they woul have sternly appealed to 
"the sword after their petitions had been neglected; to 
" doubt it would be treason to the most glorious memories 
" of British freedom. From time immemorial, men of the 
" English^frace have been ready to rebel against any 
" authority not yielding quickly to their just demands ; 
" they have been the freest of men because the most 
" rebellious." Justice consequently cries out, not against 
the men who fought for their homes, but against the 
Ministers who forced the rebellion and created it by their 
own criminal maladministration. In fact, it may become 
a question of impeaching the principal ringleaders in the 
spoliation and oppression of the population of the North- 
west. — From The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle^ 
Montreal, Canada. 



— 116 — 



THE SITUATION IN ONTARIO. 

The Orange Order can lay no claim to an exclusive 
monopoly of loyalty ; the brethren are not a whit more 
loyal than others, who are never heard bawling about 
what they have done and are prepared to do ; and as to 
the peace and weKare of the community, it is a remarkable 
fact that where the Orange element is in the ascendant, 
there turmoil and strife are certain to be found. A poli-- 
tical organization to all intents and purposes, its leaders 
are ever on the watch for the " main chance ■' — ever on 
the look-out for l^o. 1 — and they make the rank and file 
subservient to their own ends. Were they can control 
they make their power felt, whether it be in Par- 
liamentary or Municipal affairs ; and none can share 
the boodle except those who belong to the " lodge." 
A " good, sound Protestant," who is not of the lodge, 
may sometimes get at their hands political preferment ; 
but the Papist has no show whatever. And the worst of 
it is, that in many instances it is the Papist vote that 
secures power for the Orangeman. This may sound 
strange ; but it is absolutely true that of the sixteen 
Orangemen of this Province who now hold seats in the 
House of Commons, several so hold by the good will and 
pleasure of Catholics. Yet the very men for whose 
return to Parliament Catholics worked earnestly and 
effectively were not ashamed the other day to demand of 



— 117 — 

Sir Alexander Campbell that he forthwith cancel the 
appointment of a Catholic, which had just been made by 
one of his colleagues. 

We think a crisis in this matter has been reached. 
When we lind the Catholics of Ontario shut out from 
Parhamentary representation— shut out from Judiciary, 
the list of sheriffs, of registrars and county attorneys- 
shut out from the higher offices with their ample salaries ; 
and when, in addition to all this, we find the Orange 
serpent (not satisfied with stinging the Cathohcs of this 
Province whenever and wherever it could) attempting to 
fasten its fangs on Ireland through those who are laboring in 
her cause here, we see but one course that can be pursued 
by any man with an ounce of Irish Catholic blood in his 
veins. The Orangemen have shown that they are our 
implacable foes ; and that they are also the unrelenting 
enemies of Ireland. They have done us all the injury 
they could, and will do us more if they can. Let us put 
it out of their power to do us further harm ; and let us 
punish them for the harm they have already done us. 
This we can do very easily and very simply. 

When gentlemen of the Gaskin type— who beheve 
in home rule for themselves but not for others— challenge 
the Catholic body offensively, unfairly and insultingly, 
the gauntlet should be picked up promptly and the battle 
begun. In every case where a choice is made by ballot — 
be it an election for Parliament or a municipal election— 
the Catholic should be careful in marking his ticket. If 



118 



there be on the ticket the name of a candidate who is an 
Orangeman, his obvious duty is to pass that name by and. 
vote for the candidate who is not an Orangeman, what- 
'ever else he may be. A plan like this, rigidly adhered to 
at every polling booth in the Province, w^ould in a short 
time shear the members of the Orange Order of the greater 
part, if not all, of their political strength. It would do 
more : it would teach them a lesson which they would 
never forget— teach them that those who play with fire 
run the risk of being burned. The time is opportune for a 
test like this ; and we can win if we be but united. It is 
not a question of politics; it is whether the Catholics of 
Ontario shall any longer submit to the injustice and 
indignity heaped upon them by a secret, oath-bound 
cabal — a cabal whose oath binds all its members to undy- 
ing hostility to Catholics and their religion. Every Orange 
lodge in this Province is the focus whence emanates the 
decree which rejects the Catholics and denies him parti- 
cipation in the public life of the country. We can do no 
less than reciprocate the kindness by voting steadily and 
solidly against every Orangeman who presents himself 
for our suffrage till we have seen the last of them. — From 
The IrisKJJanadian^ of Toronto, Ontario. 

A FOUL DEED. 

The foul deed is done, another victim sacrificed to the 
Moloch of Orange hate — the virgin pages of Canadian 



— 119 — 

annals reddened with blood, and the structure of Confe- 
deration shaken to its very lowest foundations. The 
hanging of Louis Hiel and the maintenance of Dewdney 
in a place he has dishonored, is the greatest political 
blunder perpetrated since Canada first entered on national 
existence. The whole country had just been rejoiced to 
hear of the completion of the Pacific Railway when this 
sanguinary deed was done — dividing man fron man, and 
setting citizen against citizen. A fate that Britain, with 
all her might and greatness, did not decree for Cetewayo 
or Arabi Bey, has befallen the unfortunate Chief of ^the 
Metis. ^ It is all very well for interested men, men who 
hanker after the loaves and fishes of ofiice, or men now 
in possession of the fleshpots of Egypt, to cry out against 
the infamy and the guilt of the Half-breed leader. We 
seek not to extenuate his guilt, nor to palliate his mis- 
deeds. But we do say that if ever there was a case in 
which [the clemency of the Crown should have been 
exercised, this verily was one. Riel was the leader of a 
people whom all honest men admit to have been goaded 
into rebellion by oppression as galling as ever borne, he 
had been tried by a court declared by one of the ablest 
of Canadian jurists — a man who loved him not — un- 
constitutional ; and then his sanity had more^than once, 
and by men of undoubted weight of charater and expe- 
rience, been called in question. But still he was hanged. 
Hanged I But not, mark you, readers, for his part in the 
late insurrection ; he was hanged because of the execution 



120 



of Scott at Fort Garry in 1870. For this crime he had 
already suffered the severest of punishments, banishment 
from his own country and people. .But the Orange Moloch 
would not be satisfied. The lodges, acting under orders 
from their leaders in Ottawa and elsewhere, sent their 
ultimatum to the Executive, and Kiel's blood has been 
offered to appease the monster. Will Orangeism now be 
satisfied ? 'Not at all. Give that foul beast blood and he 
will demand more. Our French friends and fellow-citizens 
are now enabled to see the true nature of this bloody and 
infamous Association, whose entire history is one of murder 
and violence. These are strong terms, but no stronger 
than the exigencies of the case demand. 

With reason indeed does IjEtendard of the 16th inst., 
exclaim : " This is a day of sovereign humiliation for the 
" French Canadian race. In this no mistake should be made, 
" the stigma of infamy that the fanaticism and cowardice 
'' of our enemies are to press on the brow of Riel is designed 
" for the ignominy of a whole people. When will the day 
'"of retribution come ? This question will, we know, meet 
" with Orange laughter, because, for ages, their executioners 
" have made political martyrs, and yet they revel with im- 
" punity in blood." 

" Whatever the result, let us," adds our contemporary, 
" hold our souls in peace, and preserve ourselves from 
" anger. The smallest act of violence might compromise 
" forever the most just of causes." 

With heart and soul we join with the Post in urging 



121 



the closest union at this critical moment betwen the 
French and Irish Catholics of the Dominion. Eiel has been 
made a victim to Orange hate and bigotry. The lodges 
may now rejoice, and rejoice they will for the moment. 
But if the Catholics of Canada, rising in their might, 
show them that they can not here erect and maintain that 
same species of Protestant ascendancy that so long debased 
and disgraced Ireland, their rejoicing will be of short 
duration. The recent public declarations of the Orange 
body leave no room for doubt as to its intentions. Not 
satisfied with closing the doors of Municipal Councils in 
every Province where they are numerous enough to do 
so against Catholics, not content with making it almost 
impossible for any Catholic to win legislative honors 
except in strongly Catholic constituencies, they have raised 
the cry that the French must go. Quebec is henceforth 
to be the objective point of their assaults. For years 
insidious attempts have been made to destroy the auto- 
nomy of the Provinces, for the purpose of obliterating 
French influence in this Dominion. These efforts French 
statesmen have not resisted at the outset as they should 
have been resisted, until at last they were thought so 
passive as even to bear a murderous blow at their nation- 
ality without the slightest resentment. It is difficult to 
predict the immediate political result that must follow so 
grave an occurrence as the execution of the Half-breed 
chieftain. As an indication of the feeling among the 
French supporters of the Administration, we may mention 



— 122 — 

that La Presse (Conservative) announces that Messrs. 
Coursol, Desjardins and Girouard, all three Conservatives, 
wrote Sir John MacDonald immediately before the ex- 
ecution to say that if Kiel were hanged he should no 
longer have their support. On the 13th inst., the following 
telegram was sent the Premier : 

Montreal, ]N'ov. 13th, 18S5. 

To Sir John MacDonald^ K. G. (7., Ottaiva : 

The execution of Louis Kiel would, under the actual 
circumstances, be an act of cruelty, all responsability for 
which we repudiate. 

Signed : J. C. Coursol, M. P., Montreal East. 

Alphonse Desjardins, M. P., Hochelaga. 
D. Girouard, M. P., Jacques-Cartier. 

F. Yanasse, M. P., Yamaska. 

L. H. Massue, M. P., Kichelieu. 
Dupont, M. P., Bagot. 
A. L. Desaulniers, M. P., Maskinonge. 
J.-B. Daoust, M. P., Two Mountains. 
J. S. H. Bergeron, M. P., Beauharnois. 
J. W. Bain, M. P., Soulanges. 
P. B. Benoit, M. P., Chambly. 
Ed. Guilbault, M. P., JoHette. 

G. A. Gigault, M. P., Kouville. 
S. Labrosse, M. P., Prescott. 

L. L. L. Desaulniers, M. P., St.-Maurice. 
F. Dugas, M. P., Montcalm. 



123 



Besides this message Sir John MacDonald also re- 
ceived the following: 

Montreal, Nov. 14th, 1885. 

To Sir John MacDonald, K. C. M, G., Ottaxoa : 

I join very heartily with my colleagues in the actual 
circumstances. The execution of Riel would be an act 
of cruelty for which I repudiate all responsability. 

H. HUKTEAU, M. P., 

L'Assomption. 

To Mr. Desjardins, member for Hochelaga, Mr. 
Amyot, on the same day, despatched the f oUow^ing telegram 
from Quebec : 

To Alfhonse Desjardins, M. P. 

You have done well. Lesage and myself have wired 

in the same sense. 

G. Amyot. 

It will thus be seen that the entire Quebec delegation 
to the Commons is in a state of deepest excitement and 
agitation. What will the outcome be ? The next session 
of Parliament wnll tell the tale. — The Catholic Record of 
London, Ontario. 



— 124 — 



IRISH SYMPATHY FOR RIEL IN NEW YORK. 

Resolutions were adopted at the regular meeting of 
the Irish-American Union held last evening, in which 
the execution of Louis Riel was condemned as a "judicial 
murder." The resolution referred to the Canadian Govern- 
ment as a '' subservient tool of the bigoted Orange fac- 
tion," and offered congratulations to the French Cana- 
dians for the " spirit and determination shown in their 
efforts to save Kiel's life." — New Yorh World. 



HISTORICAL 



REMINISCENCES. 



HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES. 



IV. 

WHAT THE "FIGARO" {PARIS) SAYS. 

Mr. George Demanche, a distinguislied member of the 
Paris Figaro's staff, in one of liis letters published in that 
paper on the lOtli of November, expresses himself as fol- 
lows : 

" If Kiel had not surrendered himself, the struggle 
would have been a long one and the issue of the rebel- 
lion very likely different. It cannot be denied that the 
English felt very uneasy over this uprising of the French 
Half-breeds, and it is one of their characteristics, never 
to forgive those who have frightened them." 

The eminent writer was with the French delegation 
that visited Canada during the month of August, 1885. 

Before returning to France, Mr. Demanche and a few 
companions went as far as the Rocky Mountains, 
and they had an opportunity of seeing this immense 
North-w^estern territory the French Metis tried so hard 



128 



to free from English domination on two different occa- 
sions. 

He ends his communication by these few words : 
"Taking everything into consideration, the execution of 
Kiel would be a crime against humanity." 

And that crime has been perpetrated ! 

In writing that the English never forgave those who 
succeeded in scaring them, Mr. Demanche was undoubt- 
edly thinking of the 30th of May, U31. 

It was on that day that OYerfoi'ty thousand English 
troops assembled at Kouen to witness the agony of one 
young girl scarcely twenty years of age, condemned by 
them to be burned alive. 

It was on that day that Joan of Arc, the virgin of 
Orleans, expired in the midst of a devouring fire lit by 
English hands. 

That one inspired young girl had stricken the entire 
English army with terror. 

They did not forgive her, she died in the midst of the 
vociferations of the British soldiery that had fled be- 
fore her. 

Or perhaps Mr. Demanche had present in his mind 
the Island of St. Helena, where the giant whose roaiing 
had shook the throne of England, breathed his last under 
the odious treatment of his jailer, Hudson Lowe. 

The Corsican who; when a young officer of artillery, 
had thrashed the English at Toulon, and who twenty-two 
years later, when Emperor of France, met Wellington at 



— 129 — 

Waterloo, that Titan called Napoleon I., whose immortal 
eagles had harassed for years the British lion, allowed 
himself one day to trust English honor and generosity. 

He asked hospitality of his enemy. 

England confined the fallen Emperor at St. Helena. 

This demi-god, who had seen the world at his feet, 
whose simple glance and frown had terrified the Emperors 
and Kings of Europe and who had dictated to all the po- 
tentates on earth, was given for kingdom a pestilential 
spot in the middle of the ocean. In seeing the open 
prison chosen for him by his British host, he remembered 
the words of Dante : All hope abandon^ ye icho enter in. 

England had not forgotten ! 

She conld not forgive ! 

Albion has been the evil genius of the Bonapartes. 

The first, " the Great," died an exile in one of her 
islands whose infected atmosphere is dreaded even by the 
sea gulls. 

The second, Napoleon the third, the man of Sedan, 
saw his last day on the English soil which had been gen- 
erously opened to him after he had left France ruined by 
his fault, and bleeding at every pore. 

The third, the heir to the Imperial throne of Napo- 
leon I. was killed by the Zulus, while in the service 
of England. He fell on an isolated and ignored spot, clad 
in the British uniform, the same as the one worn bv his 
grand uncle's jailers at St, Helena, 



— 130 — 

A COURAGEOUS RASCAL. 

After the Regina tragedy, Sir John A. MacDoiiald 
suddenly remembered that his presence was imperatively 
required in London. The important question of the fish- 
eries was to be attended to, and thinking most wisely that 
a change of air wonld be beneficial to him, he decided to 
start for England. 

I wonder how his colleagues of the Ottawa Cabinet 
felt on hearing that their leader had made up his mind to 
make that pleasure trip. 

Here again the public funds come in very handy. 

Sir John A. MacDonald, Prime Minister for the 
Dominion of Canada, Member of the Privy Council of 
Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, could not 
travel like a com.moner, and as the vital importance of 
his trip to London could not be qnestioned, the country 
must pay for it. His Cabinet will have to face the popular 
storm without him. A pretty hard task I should think, 
and if I form my opinion on the subject from the public 
indignation lately expressed all over Lower Canada the 
Ministers have a difficult work before them. 

For, if Eiel's trial is over, there is another to trial come, 
that of Sir John A. MacDonald and the French Canadian 
members of the Cabinet, who have betrayed their race. 

Kiel has paid his debt in full. 

The French C^Ufidians w^ill see that the traitors do the 
^ame. 



— 131 — 



THE EXECUTION. 

[From the Leader, the most prominent paper at Regina.] 

The Leader was always hostile to Eiel and his 
cause. The impartiality and the touching simplicity of 
the following narration struck me as deserving a few 
pac.es in this book. My readers will surely be deeply 
interested in reading this account of the patriot Louis 
David Kiel's end, and will fully agree with me, that his 
beautiful death was worthy of his heroic life. This is the 
account published by the Eegina Leader: 

Eiel Executed.-He Dies Without a Speech.-A 
Sahe and Beautiful Death. 

Regina, Nov. 16— As fair a morning as ever dawned 
shone on the closing act-the last event-of the not un- 
eventful life of Louis Eiel. The sun glittered out m 
pitiless beauty and the prairie slightly silvered with hoar 
frost shone like a vast plain sown with diamonds. AVe 
drove, Mr. Sherwood, Chief of Dominion Police, who had 
arrived on Sunday evening with the warrant. As we 
neared Government-House two armed Mounted Police 
drew up their horses across our path and demanded our 
pass, which read as follows : 

" To Mr. Gibson : Admit representatives of th? 
Leader. (Signed) Sheeiff Chapleau," 



— 132 — 

When we n eared the bridge there was a force com- 
manded by an inspector. Two traps were at a standstill. 
One of the troopers shook hands with Mr. Percy Sher- 
wood, an old friend. We had a pleasant word with Mr. 
F. J. Hunter and Mr. W. C. Hamilton. Our pass was 
again vised and on we drove. Arrived at the prison we 
met outside the representatives of the press, Dr. Dodd, 
Dr. Pugsley, Mr. Marsh, Messrs. Gillespie, Dawson, Bole 
and several citizens. The beauty of the morning was 
the chief theme of conversation. Towards eight o'clock 
we crushed our way through troopers. Col. Irvine very 
courteously doing all in his power for us, ascended the 
stair-case, walked the length of the prison, and there, at 
the doorway of the ghastly place of execution, knelt Kiel, 
his profile showing clear against the light. Father Andre, 
a surpHce over his soutane kneeling, his back to us, and 
Father McWilliams, with a stole thrown over his travel- 
ling coat, kneeling, his face to us, and holding a wax can- 
dle lighted. In Kiel's hand was an ivory crucifix, silver 
mounted, which he frequently kissed. Father McWill- 
iams and Pere Andre ever and again sprinkled holy 
water on the condemned man. Kiel was pale — deadly 
pale — and his face looked most intellectual. 

Father Andre (in French). — Do you pardon all your 
enemies from the bottom of your heart ? 

Kiel : I do, vion pere — I pardon all my enemies for the 
love of the good God. 



— 133 — 

Father Andre : Have yon any sentiment of malice, 
any feeling of malice against any one ? 

Kiel : No, my father, I forgive all. 

Father Andre : Do you offer yonr life as a sacrifice 
to God ? 

Riel : I do, mon pere. 

Father Andre : My child — the flesh is weak and the 
spirit strong, do yon repent of all your sins of thought, 
word and deed ? 

Riel : I do, my father — I have committed many sins, 
and I ask my God's pardon for them all in the names of 
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. 

Father Andre : Yon do not wish to speak in public ? 
Yon make that a sacrifice to God ? 

Riel: Oui^mon jpere. I make to my God as a sacri- 
fice the speaking to the public in this my last hour. 

Father Andre : God has been good to you my son to 
give you an opportunity of repenting ; are you thankful 
for this ? 

Riel : I thank the good God that in His Providence 
he has enabled me to make my peace with Him and all 
mankind before I go away. 

The two clergymen then placed their hands on his 
head and pronounced the absolution. 

Riel then, in an affecting and childlike way, prayed 
God to bless his mother, his wife, his brothers, his friends 
and his enemies. " My father bless me," he said, looking 
up to heaven, " according to the views of your Providence, 



134 



which are ample and without measure." Then, address- 
ing Pere Andre : " Will jou bless me, Father ? " 

Father Andre blessed him, as did father McWilliams. 
He then rose from his knees and was pinioned, he mean- 
while praying and the clergy praying. When he was 
ready to pass out to the scaffold, Pere Andre said to him 
in French, " There, go to heaven!" {Bon! Allez au 
Ciel!) He then kissed Pere Andre on the lips, and 
Father McWilliams embraced him giving him the side 
of each cheek. Piel then said, ere he turned to pass 
through the door which went into that room built of 
coarse lumber and which, if Pere Andre is right, and Piel 
was really repentant, and Christianity is true, was for him 
the poor dingy portals of eternal day and unending peace 
and blessedness : — 

" I give all my life a sacrifice to God. Remerciez 
Madame Forget et Monsieur Forget O my God ! " he 
cried, still speaking in Fi-ench as he went down stairs, 
" you are my support. Mon soutien, c^est Dieu ! " 

He now stood on the drop. The cord is put on his 
neck. He said: " Courage^ mon pere.^^ 

Pere Andre in subdued tones : — " Courage ! Courage !" 

They shook hands with him as did Dr. Jukes, and 
Biel preserving to the last that politeness which was so 
characteristic of him, and which was remarked durino^ the 
trial, said : 

" Thank you, Doctor." 

Then he prayed in French : " Jesus, Mary and 



135 



Josepli have mercy on me. J^esjpere encore. I hope 
still. I believe in God to the last moment." 

Father Mc Williams : " Pray to the Sacred Heart of 
Jesus." 

Kiel : Have mercy on me Sacred Heart of my Jesus ! 
Have mercy on me. Jesus, Marie et Joseph assistez-moi 
dans flies dernier s moments. Assistez-moi, Jesus, Marie 
et Joseph ! 

Father McWilliams held the cross to him, which he 
kissed. 

Mr. Deputy Sheriff Gibson : " Louis Riel have you any- 
thing to say why sentence of death should not be carried 
out on you ? " 

Kiel, when Pere Andre stood about to ascend the stair- 
case, anxious evidently to leave the painful scene, said in 
French : " Shall I say something ? " 

Pere Andre : " No." 

Riel (in French) : Then I should like to pray a little 
more. 

Pere Andre : He asks to pray a little more. 

Deputy Sheriff Gibson (looking at his watch) : '' Two 
minutes." 

Father McWilliams : Say " Our Father," and, address- 
ing Mr. Gibson, " when he comes to ' Deliver us from evil,' 
tell him then." 

Ml*. Gibson gave the directions to the hangman who 
now put on Kiel's head the white cap. 

Riel and Father McWilliams : " Our Father which art 



— 136 — 

in heaven, hallowed by thy name, Thy Kingdom come, 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this 
day our daily bread, and deliver us " 

The hangman pulled the crank and Riel fell a drop of 
nine feet. 

Drs. Dodd and Cotton were below. The knot in the 
fall had slipped round from under the poll. The body 
quivered and swayed slightly to and fro. Dr. Dodd felt 
the pulse. 

Leader Reporter : How is his pulse, Doctor? 

Dr. Dodd : It beats yet — slightly. 

Leader Reporter (addressing Dr. Cotton) : I hope he 
is without pain. 

Dr. Cotton : O quite. All sensation is gone. 

The body ceased to sway. It hung without a quiver. 
Dr. Dodd, looking at his watch and feeling the pulse of 
what was Hiel : — " He is dead. Dead in two minutes." 
Dr. Cotton put his ear to where that restless heart beat : 
« Dead." 



THREE TRAITORS. 



THREE TRAITORS. 



V 



LOVE OF POWER ABOVE LOVE OF OUNTRY. 

Sir Hector Langewin ! 

Sir Adolphe Caron 1 

Honorable (?) J. A. Chapleau ! 

These three names have been lately in the month of 
every French Canadian, and since the death of Riel, the 
lips by which they were uttered have never failed to 
accompany them with a curse and a malediction. 

They were directly connected with the execution, and 
they will be forever associated with one of the bloodiest 
pages of Canada's history. 

They were Sir John A. MacDonald's accomplices, or 
they were his tools. 

If they were his accomplices they have ceased to be 
French Canadians, they are renegades and apostates, they 
are cowards ! 

If they were his tools, their incapacity and weakness 



140 



make them unworthy of representing their race in the 
Cabinet. 

In either case they ought to leave the Ministry. 

Incapable, or traitors to the cause of their country- 
men, their political career has ended with the life of 
Kiel. 

The death warrant was approved and ratified by their 
signatures, they henceforth belong to the reprobation and 
hatred of their people. 

Their presence in the Cabinet after the execution of 
the fatal sentence is an irrefutable proof that they have 
completely endorsed the sanguinary policy of the Prime 
Minister, and they have become the Judas of their race. 

CAMELEONIC CRIMINALITY. 

In 1875, Ambroise Lepine, one of the staunchest sup- 
porters and friends of Kiel, who had played a conspicuous 
part in the rebellion of 1869, was arrested, and tried in 
Manitoba, for the crime of high treason. 

The charges against him were identically the same as 
those for which Kiel mounted the scaffold at Ke,£:ina. 

A young lawyer from the Province of Quebec under- 
took the defence of the accused man, and went from 
Montreal to Winnipeg in order to attend the trial. 

His name was J. A. Chapleau ; he was then thirty- 
three years of age, and his career as a criminal lawyer 
had already been a successful one. 



141 



He was mucli esteemed by tlie French Canadian bar and 
bis Conservative friends placed great hopes in him. 

His political prospects, therefore, were very good, 
and his popularity was a sure indication that he would 
soon rise to prominence. 

When he went to Manitoba to defend Lepine, he 
carried with him the best wishes of Lower Canada. 

Every French Canadian followed with the deepest 
interest the different phases of the trial in which was in- 
volved the life of a French Half-breed. 

I^ever before had Chapleau been more eloquent and 
irresistibly convincing than on this occasion. 

His pleading before the court is still remembered as 
a remarkable effort. 

He spoke of the heinous persecution that had forced 
the French Half-breeds to take up arms against their 
oppressors. 

He pictured with energy and pathos the misery and 
despair of the people who had seen their homes plund- 
ered, their wives, mothers and sisters violently outraged, 
and their brothers cowardly and brutally assaulted. 

He described w^ith tears in his eyes the heartless and 
unmerciful treatment they had received at the hands of 
their enemies. 

He spoke of the violated rights of these men as 
British subjects, as Christians, and as heads of families. 

He protested, with an inspired and convincing 
eloquence, against the systematic and cold indifference 



— 142 — 

shown by the Government on all that had connection 
with the North-western territories. 

He solemnly denounced the numberless acts of 
savagery and ruffianism perpetrated by Orangemen since 
1870 ; and in the name of humanity, civilization and 
progress, his inspired voice thundered an emphatic 
protestation against the continuance of these horrors, 
which were the dishonor and shame of Canadian history. 

He spoke with noble dignity of the loyalty of the 
French Canadian race to the British Crown ; he repeated 
the memorable words of Sir George Etienne Cartier, 
that immortal champion of Canadian rights : " It is a 
French Canadian w^ho will fire the last gun for the 
defence of England on American soil." 

Chapleau'S voice rang through the Dominion like a 
thunderbolt in the middle of a silent night. 

French Canadians were breathlessly awaiting the 
close of the trial. 

Ambroise Lepine was sentenced to death for high- 
treason, but on the 15th of January, 1875, the Earl of 
DufPerin, then Governor General of Canada, advised the 
Dominion Minister of Justice, and reported to Her 
Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, that " ac- 
cording to his independent judgment^ and on his own 
personal responsibility^'^ he had commuted a capital 
Bentence, that of Ambroise Lepine, to two tears 
IMPRISONMENT witli forfeiture of political rights." 

A few years later the Honorable J, A. Chapleau was 



— 143 — 

offered and accepted the portfolio of Secretary of State on 
the Ministerial benches. 

And the same man whose voice resounded in 1875, 
in Ambroise Lepine's case, like the trumpet of the 
avenging angel of an oppressed race, conld not find a 
word for the defence of Louis David Riel whose offence 
was identically the same as that of Ambroise Lepine. 
And his signature can now be seen on the death-warrant, 
near that of Sir John A. MacDonald, his Orange chief ; 
and, horrible to relate, it seems as if the hand of fatality 
had directed all the details of that iniquitous immolation 
in order to stigmatize the name of Chapleau ! 

The Honorable J. A. Chapleau, Secretary of State, 
was a member of the Cabinet who decided upon Kiel's 
fate. 

Major Chapleau, his brother, High Sheriff for the 
Province of the Saskatchewan, was the official who was 
representing the justice of England on the scaffold at 
Regina where the leader of the Metis was launched into 
eternity. 

The former had decided npon Kiel's death ! 

The latter was the salaried tool by which the sentence 
was executed ! 

One was the condemning judge ! 

The other the executioner ! 

It may be argued, that Chapleau the Minister acted 
according to the dictates of his conscience, and that 



144 



Chapleau the Higli Sheriff performed the duties of his 
office. 

True ! but will a brother immolate his brother, a 
son his father, a father his son, when there is a possibility 
of resigning an official position in order to repudiate the 
odium of an infamous deed ? 

Mademoiselle de Sombreuil once drank a glass of blood 
to save her father's life. 

Chapleau, Langevin and Caron never thought of 
sacrificing their portfolios to save the life of their brother 
Louis David Kiel. How could they save Eiel ? may be 
the question asked by those who have reasons in trying 
to exonerate these three ministers of the Crown from 
the crushing responsibility they have assumed. 

How could they save Eiel ? I will never believe that 
Sir John A. MacDonald would have carried his threats 
into execution if the three French Canadian members of 
the Cabinet had unanimously tendered their resignations 
sooner than participate in any manner or form in the 
deed which has aroused the indignation, not only of one 
million live hundred thousand Canadians of French origin, 
but also that of two-thirds of the well-thinking English- 
speaking people of the Dominion. 

Had Langevin, Chapleau and Caron been animated 
with a commendable devotion to the dignity and welfare 
of their fellow countrymen, instead of being moved only 
by a personal and unavowable purpose, Kiel's life would 
have been spared. 



— U5 — 

What England did not dare to do with Arabi Pasha 
and Cetawayo, Canada did not hesitate to do with the 
French Metis, and the French Canadians fully understand 
that there are three names that will be henceforth con- 
demned to national execration, and those three names are 
Langevin, Caron^ Cha^leaio. 



I have read in one of the Canadian papers that the 
Government is about to publish a pamphlet destined to 
explain and defend the policy of the ministry in the 
affairs of the ISTorth-west. 

This pamphlet, it is said, will be especially addressed 
to the French Canadian population. 

I am very anxious indeed to read the promised expla- 
nations of Sir John A. MacDonald's Cabinet. The Minis- 
ters may find a servile writer to pen, according to their 
suggestions, whatever they may think of or invent for 
their defence, but they will not find a single French 
Canadian reader who will see in their pamphlet a justi- 
fication of the Regina tragedy. 

Why not wait until the next session of Parliament 
before attempting to justify themselves in the eyes of 
the country? 

If they are so strongly convinced that in hanging the 
French Metis they acted strictly according to the laws of 
justice, why should they be so anxious to publicly 
explain their conduct while they postpone, through fear, 



— 146 — 

the convocation of the legislative body to whom they are 
directly responsible ? 

The proposed publication of this pamphlet is a scheme 
designed for the sole purpose of gaining, as soon as possible, 
the good-will and support of some honest and hesitating 
partisans, who, crushed by this national calamity, cannot 
yet believe that the three French Canadian Ministers 
could be guilty of such a monstrous treason against their 
race. 

Be that as it may, their pamphlet will never make the 
people forget the IHth of November, 1885, or the gibbet 
of Regina. 

A TRUE BILL. 

Let the Cabinet impudently deny that the French 
Half-breeds w^ere not treated with indifferent and cruel 
contempt since 1869. 

Let the Ministers justify the criminal neglect they 
have been guilty of in everything concerning the affairs 
of Manitoba and the Saskatchewan. 

Let them explain their incomprehensible indulgence 
tow^ards the Orange vandals who have kept the North- 
west in a continuous state of terror for upward of fifteen 
years. 

Let them deny that French Half-breeds were assassi- 
nated, that the Metis homes were plundered, their wives 
and daughters outraged, their properties treacherously 
taken away from them by Orangemen. 



— 147 — 

Let the Cabinet members pi-ove that Riel and his fol- 
lowers had not been pardoned three times by them. 

Let the Government refute the fact that the Half- 
breed populatioQ has not been in a starving condition 
for the last ten years, while the rapacious speculators 
were openlv protected by the authorities. 

Let Sir John A. MacDonald explain in the face of 
the world his avowed and untiring hatred for Riel. 

Let him deny what he said once, '' Oh ! that Riel, if 
I ever can get him in my power ! " 

Let his Cabinet prove that RieFs trial was a fair one. 

Let them prove also that the jury did not recommend 
the condemned man to the mercy of the Government. 

Let them give the reasons and motives of the three 
inhuman reprieves in the execution of the sentence. 

Let Sir Adolphe Caron repeat to the French 
Canadians his toast and speech delivered in Winnipeg 
before the execution. 

Let Sir Hector Langevin explain the part he acted in 
this affair, and his twice broken official declarations ! 

Let the Honorable J. A. Chapleau give the reasons of 
his devotion to Lepine and his utter indifference about 
Riel's fate. 

Let them all deny the fact that the execution of the 
French Half-breed was decided upon in order to appease 
the Orange brethern of Sir John A. MacDonald and in 
spite of the indignation of the whole Christian world. 

Let them say, if they dare, that they are not respon- 



— 148 — 

sible for all the outrages that gave rise to the two rebellions. 

Let them point out a single instance wliere they did 
anything to pacify and relieve the oppressed and starving 
French Half-breed population. 

Let them conceal the fact that the entire Parish of St. 
Louis de Langevin was completely defrauded by English 
and Orange speculators of a property on which twenty- 
four families were living. 

Let all the members of the .Ottawa Ministry invent, if 
they can, plausible reasons for the justification of their 
barbarous conduct in Riel's case, they will convince only 
those loho have reasons to allow themselves to be convinced ! 
The press in every country, humanity and civilization have 
condemned the execution of the patriot Louis David Kiel 
as one of the most hideous political crimes perpetrated in 
the nineteenth century. 

No explanation can wash off the blood that is on Sir 
John A. MacDonald's hands. No apology will ever exon- 
erate the three French Canadian Ministers of their par- 
ticipation in the legal murder of one of their own race. 
The world has pronounced its verdict. 

The names of the members of the Ottawa Cabinet, 
especially those of Sir John A. MacDonald, Hector Lan- 
gevin, Adolphe Caron and J. A. Chapleau, will henceforth 
belong to the list of murderers. 

And as God in expelling Cain from the Garden of 
Eden reproached him with the death of Abel, so history 



149 



and posterity will call these three French Canadian Min- 
isters to a terrible account for the death of Riel. 

The crime has been committed. 

The expiation is sure to come. 

ADDING COWARDLY INSULT TO CRIMINAL INJUSTICE. 

It is said that the day after the execution at Regina, 
the Ministers in Council decided to vote a pension in 
favor of Kiel's family. 

The bare thought of such an unprecedented baseness 
is a crime as horrible as the homicide they have perpe- 
trated. 

Louis David Riel, how and when did you ever deserve 
this last and humiliating insult ? 

These blood-thirsty cannibals made a broken-hearted 
woman of your old mother, a widow of your young wife, 
two orphans of your children, and after this quadruple 
crime was committed, they coolly offered them a morsel 
of bread as a proper remuneration for the life you have 
so courageously lost on their scaffold. Their generosity 
can only be equalled by their villany, and the money tliey 
offer to pay to your desolate family would come from the 
public funds ! 

They would pay for their crime with the people's 
money. It is simply horrible and no punishment will 
ever be worthy of such infamy. 

These blood stained dictators may for a while yet hold 



— 150 — 

in their hands the reins of the Government, but they will 
never cease to see in their sleepless nights the livid phan- 
tom of their victim. 

Eemorse, that " merciless policeman of God," will pur- 
sue them until they rot in their dishonored graves. 

They were inexorable towards Kiel. 

Public opinion will be without mercy for them. 

And you, young French Canadian poets, Louis Fre- 
chette and Benjamin Suite, will you not let your lyre be 
heard in a sublime and national De Profundis? Will not 
your muse inspire you with an ode of patriotic praise for 
the Metis martyr and one of eternal anathema against his 
executioners ? 

Oh ! that you may find in your souls accents power- 
ful enough to immortalize the name of the fallen hero, 
and to brand with infamy, before the present generation 
and the generations to come, the names of those whose 
criminal hands brought about his untimely death. 



CONDEMNED 



EVEN BEFORE TRIED. 



CONDEMNED EVEN BEFORE TRIED. 



VI. 

''OH! THAT R/EL, IF I CAN EVER GET HIM IN MY 
POWER!" 

These are the words uttered by Sir John A. MacDonald 
shortly after the second rebellion of the Half-breeds. 

These few words, coming from the lips of the Premier, 
had a meaning full of inexorable hatred. 

They contained a world of threats, and these threats 
have been fully put into execution since the surrender of 
the Metis leader. 

The cold, pitiless policy followed by the Ottawa Gov- 
ernment can leave no doubt as to the immutable resolu- 
tion of the Chief of the Cabinet in carrying through his 
deadly design against Kiel. 

The formation of the court that tried Eiel could give 
no hope that the trial would be a fair one. 

The selection of six jurymen of English origin was a 
clear indication that the verdict would prove irrevocably 
fatal to the prisoner. 



— 164 — 

Why this calculated selection of the English judge 
Richardson ? 

Why this formation of a jury composed of six men 
only, chosen among English-speaking people ? 

Had not Kiel the right to be tried by a jury composed 
of twelve of his own countrymen ? 

The vilest assassin brought to justice for the most 
abominable crime; the parricide, the highwayman, the 
commonest cut-throat, has the right to ask for a jury of 
twelve men ! 

Why this exception for Riel ? 

General Middleton, the commander of the expedition 
against this last insurrection, sent a message to Kiel, tell- 
ing him that if he would surrender, he could entirely 
depend upon the mercy and leniency of the Government. 
How did Sir John A. MacDonald keep that promise, 
officially made by the superior officer he had sent to cut 
down the rebellion ? 

Reil surrendered himself, but instead of finding in his 
judges mercy and leniency, he was, from the day of his 
imprisonment, treated like a mad dog. 

His trial was a farce, a dastardly treachery, a revolting 
villany. From the day the door of his cell closed upon 
him at Hegina he was doomed. 

Sir John A. MacDonald had him in his clutches this 
time. 'No power, no influence, no prayer on earth could 
save him. And in spite of all that was done to obtain 
the commutation of his sentence, the scaffold was erected 



— 155 — 

by the order of the Ottawa Cabinet, and Eiel paid with 
his h'fe the crime of being one of the noblest sons of that 
valiant race of pioneers, who, headed by Jacques Cartier, 
were the first to bring to Canada the sublime symbol of 
religion and civilization. 

After this crime had been decided upon by the Cana- 
dian Ministers, Sir John A. MacDonald immured himself 
in silent and deaf indifference. 

From his private cabinet that man threw impudently 
the gauntlet to public opinion and posterity. 

His well-known irrepressible thirst for whiskey and 
strong liquor of all kinds, changed suddenly into an in- 
extinguishable thirst for Kiel's blood, and, face to face 
with his complacent and heinous conscience, h© waited 
for the mournful end. Like the gibbet at Eegina, he was 
waiting patiently but surely for his victim. 

Into his presence was shown a venerable prelate, 
Bishop Grandin, who, in spite of his advanced age, had 
come from the Saskatchewan to implore his clemency 
for the condemned Half-breed. 

He asked a commutation of sentence in the name of 
the whole Catholic clergy and the people of his far-dis- 
tant diocese. 

That holy veteran of God's army humbled himself 
before the Macchiavelic statesman, but to no avail ; he 
found him inexorable. 

The voice of almost the entire press of the world, 
reached his ear, and asked him not to add another 



— 156- 

hideoiis immolation to the history of manki7id. He 
remained unmoved at this echo of human and universal 
lamentation. He remembered that in rendering their 
verdict, the eyes of the jurymen were wet with tears, 
that in giving their answer to the " Guilty or not guilty," 
their voices were broken by sobs, and that after answer- 
ing "Guilty," they unanimously and warmly recom- 
mended the doomed man t© the clemency of the Govern- 
ment. 

Yes! He remembered all that, but his heart was 
closed to any such sentiment as that of clemency. 

There was only one thing that Sir John A. Mac- 
Donald had not forgotten, it was his own words : " Oh ! 
that E-iel ! if ever I can get him in my power ! " 

x\nd he had him at last in his power. 

A petition was sent him, signed by over one million 
live hundred thousand French Canadians asking him to 
be merciful and to change the penalty. 

He paid no attention to their pressing request ! 

That man who is a husband and a father, was told 
that Kiel's old mother was crushed by grief and anguish ; 
that his young wife, who was about to give birth to her 
third child, was heart-broken and dying from sorrow and 
despair ; that his two infant children were asking for 
their father: The human-faced tiger was deaf lo all 
supplications. 

But his awn co-religionists, the Orangemen, were ad- 
mitted into his office night and day. 



— 157 — 

He heard from them, that the life of Riel was the 
price of their votes. 

They insisted upon the Half-breed being executed 
according to sentence. 

They reminded him of Scott's execution, and adjured 
him to become his avenggi*. 

The fate of Kiel was then irrevocably decided upon. 

That Minister of the English Crown, who had been 
insensible to the cry of clemency, mercy, pardon and 
humanity, listened to the satanic voice of an odious and 
malicious hatred, and on the 16th of November, 1885, in 
avenging the death of the ruffian Thomas Scott, he be- 
came the assassin of Louis David Kiel, the heroic French 
Canadian Half-breed, whose only crime was a too ardent 
love for his country, and whose last breath was a supreme 
invocation and prayer to the God of his faith. 

And thus another bloody page was added to the 
history of human passion and atrocity ! 

But a new name — that of Kiel — has increased in 
number the long list of patriotic martyrs whose memory 
live for ever in the heart of generations, and whose 
martyrdom is a sublime teaching to nations and a perpe- 
tual warning to oppressors and tyrants. 

THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. 

And now, French Canadians, what are you going to 
do? 



158 



Will you swallow shamefully the cowardly insult in- 
flicted upon your noble race by the disciples of William 
of Orange? 

Your nationality, your faith, your institutions, your 
pride, your dignity, your religion, your God in fine, 
have been slapped in the face b^a hand still impregnated 
and wet with the blood of Louis David Riel, that 
energetic son of your race. 

Are you going to bend your once proud heads and 
offer silently your bare backs to the Orange knout ? 

Are you no longer the sons of those Titans who 
wrote on their banner : " Notre Religion, notre Langue 
et nos Lois ? " {Our Religion^ our Mother Tongue and 
our Laws.) 

You have seen how far can go the hatred of those 
who, not satisfied to live upon the soil of your ancestors, 
have been and are still working — and will strive untir- 
ingly — for the annihilation of all those who have French 
blood in their veins, or Catholic faith in their souls. 

What you have witnessed is nothing compared to 
what you must expect. 

The name of Riel cannot be forgotten after a day's 
excitement. It should be in the future the symbol of 
patriotism and self-sacrifice, and his fate should live for 
ever in your hearts as an illustration of the capabilities of 
those who hold in their hands the destinies of your 
country. 

A new epoch, a new phase has commenced for you. 




AND HIS ASSASSINS 



— 159 — 

:N'o more factions between yourselves I Be united for- 
ever, and when danger comes, remember the cry of the 
Imperial Guard, of which your mother-country is so justly 

proud : 

" Serrez les rangs^^^ 

and in answer to the auto-da-fe, offered by Sir John 
A. MacDonald and his Cabinet to their Orange friends, 
build a Canadian Pantheon where you will inscribe in 
the first line the glorious name of the martyr Louis David 
Kiel, with the following epitaph under it : 

IN MEMORY OF 

LOUIS DAYID KIEL, 

a french canadian half-breed, 

Born in 1844 

AT 

ST. BONIFACE, MANITOBA, 

COWARDLY ASSASSINATED AT REGINA BY THE 

Ottaw^a Cabinet and the Orange Party 

on 

November 16th, 1885. 



passee-by 

a prayer for the eternal repose of the soul of this 

MAKTYK 

AND A CUKSE UPON 

Sir John A. MacDonald, the chief of his Assassins. 



0RAN6EISM 



ORAKGEISM 



VII. 

A FEW REMARKS. 



OATH AND OBLIGATION OF AN OKANGEMAN. 

In the introduction of his book called The History 
OF Okangeism, its origin, its rise, and its decline, by 
M. P., and published in Dublin by M. A. Gill & Son, 
50, Upper Sackville Street, and in Glasgow by Cameron 
& Ferguson, West Nile Street, in 1882, the author 
expresses himself as follows : 

" Prejudice has no more invincible foe than knowl- 
edge, and the reign of one must be the dethronement 
of the other. To assist as far as I can by the aid of 
History to let in the light of day upon an organisation 
(Orangeism) more dangerous than "l^ihilism," because 
it is in the guise of loyalty; more destructive than 
"Communism," because it turns the arms of a people 
against themselves ; more degrading than '' Ribbonism," 



164 



being the servile tool of an autocratic conspiracy, shall 
then be the object to which in these pages I shall 
devote myself. My weapons may be rusty. They will 
not be the less invincible .... The end is to bring 
conviction to upright men of all classes .... ^'No 
people,' says Edmund Burke, 'will look forward to 
posterity, who do not often look backward to their 
ancestors,' and in this I find my justification. Whether 
they blush at their crimes, or feel elated at their heroism, 
the lesson will be the same. In their errors we may 
find a warning, in their virtues an example. 

''The Author." 

In reading over attentively some precious documents 
carefully selected by the author of this remarkable work, 
I have found the following which should not fail to be 
an everlasting warning to true Catholics all over the 
world, particularly so to those of all and every origin 
who live in a country, wherever it may be, protected by 
the British flag, and ruled by English institutions. 

The unjustifiable execution of Louis David Kiel, the 
Catholic French Half-breed, is one of those solemn events 
which ought to be considered by nations as a timely 
lesson taught by the Almighty. 

It is only by consulting history that a people can 
learn who were its benefactors or its persecutors. 

It is only by knowing what has taken place in the 



— 165 — 

past that a race can guard against what might happen 
in the future. 

The hatred of Orangemen for Catholics is a secret 
to no one, less so to those who are likely to read my book, 
and be interested by its contents. There are, however, 
a few undeniable facts that it would be well to con- 
tinuously recall to the minds of those whose life is spent 
among irreconcilable enemies, and this is wliy I add the 
following to my book : 

ORANGEMEN'S ORIGINAL OATH. 

*' I do hereby swear that I wdll be true to the King 
and Government, and that I will exterminate, as far as I 
am able, the Catholics of Ireland." 

ORIGINAL TEST. 

" Q. — Where are you ? 
" A. — At the House of Bondage. 
" Q. — Where are you going ? 
" A. — To the Promised Land. 
" Q. — Stand past yourself ? 
" A.— Through the Ked Sea. 
" Q. — What is your haste ? 
" A. — I am afraid. 

" Don't be afraid, for the man who sought your life 
is dead. 



— 166 — 

'' Q.— Will jou hold it or have it ? 
" A.— I will hold it." 

AMENDED OATH OF ORANGEMEN, 

" AS ISSUED FEOM THE HANDS OF THE GRAND MASTER OF 

THE ORANGE LODGES OF ULSTER." — {Thomas Vemer.) 

" 1, in the presence of Almighty God, do solemnly 
and sincerely swear, that I will not give the Secret of an 
Orangeman, unless it be to him or them I find to be such 
after strict trial, or on the word of a well-known Orange- 
man. I also swear that I Avill answer all summons for an 
assembly of Orangemen, eighty miles distance ; and that I 
will not sit, stand by, or be by, and see a brother Orange- 
man struck, battered or abused, or know his character in- 
jured or taken away, without using ever}^ effort in my 
power to assist him at the hazard of my life. I further 
declare, that I will not lie to or upon an Orangeman, me 
knowing the same to be detrimental to him, but will warn 
him of all dangers as far as in my power lies, and that I 
will bear true allegiance to His Majesty, and assist the civil 
magistrates in the execution of their offices if called upon, 
and I will not know of any conspiracy against the 
Protestant ascendancy ; and that I will not make or be 
at the making of a Eoman Catholic an Orangeman, or 
give him any offence, unless he offends 77ie, and then I 
will use my endeavors to shed the last drop of his hlood, 
if he or they be not a warranted Mason, and that I will 



— 167 — 

stand three to ten to relieve a brother Orangeman, and I 
will not be a thief, or the companion of a thief, to my 
knowledge." 

AMENDED TEST. 

a Q. —What's that in your hand ? 

" A. — A secret to you. 

" Q. — From whence came yon ? 

" A. — From the land of bondage. 

" Q._Whither goeth thou ? 

" A.— To the land of promise. 

'' Q. — Have yon got a pass-word ? 

" A. — I have. 

" Q. — ^Will you give it to me ? 

" A. — I did not get it so ? 

a Q. — Will you halve it, or letter it ? 

"A.— I will halve it. 

a Q._March ? 

" A. — Delzo, through the Eed Sea. 

i^ Q._What red Sea ? 

" A.— The wall of the Ked Sea. 

" Q. — I am afraid ! 

u A.— Of what ? 

a Q._The Secret of Orangemen being discovered. 

'^ A. — Fear not, for he that sought your life is dead. 

a Q. — Have you got a grand word ? 

" A. — I have the grand, I am that I am. 

" Q. — Did you hear the crack ? 



1^8 



" A.— I did. 

" Q — What crack did you hear ? 
" A. — A crack from the hill of the fire. 
" Q. — Can you write your name ? 
'^ A.— I can. 

" Q. — With what sort of a pen ? 
" A. — With the spear of life, or Aaron's rod, that buds, 
blossoms, and bears almonds in one night. 
" Q.— With what sort of ink ? 
"A.— Papist blood." 

OBLIGATION OF AN ORANGEMAN. 

" I do solemnly and sincerely swear, of my own free 
will and accord, that I will, to the utmost of my powers 
support and defend the present King, all the heirs of the 
Crown, so long as he or they support the Protestant 
ascendency^ the constitutions and laws of these King- 
doms, and that I will ever hold sacred the name of our 
glorious deliverer, William the Third, Prince of Orange ; 
and I do further swear, that I am not or was not a Roman 
Catholic or Papist ; that I was not, am not, nor ever will 
be an United Irishman ; and that I never took the oath 
of secrecy to that society ; and I do further swear, in the 
presence of Almighty God, that I will always conceal, 
and never will reveal, either part or part of this that I 
am now about to receive, neither write it, nor indite it, 
stamp, stain, nor engrave it, nor cause it so to be done. 



— 169 — 

on paper, parchment, leaf, bark, brick, stone, or anything 
80 that it might be known, and I anj now become an 
Orangeman without fear, bribery, or corruption. So help 
me God ! " 

How could it be possibly denied, after the authenticity 
of the above, that Orangeism is the untiring foe of 
Catholicism, on the same principle that knavery hates 
honesty ; vice, virtue ; crime, law ; cowardice, bravery, and 
as true as ruffianism will always execrate benevolence and 
humanity, an Orangeman will abhor a Catholic. 

The fate of Ireland will remain in universal history 
as an eternal curse against Great Britain, and what the 
United Irishmen had to suffer in Ireland at the hands of 
the Orange Apostles, French Canadians and their brothers, 
the Irish Catholics, living in the Dominion, have every 
reason to expect at the hands of their common enemy, 
the Canadian Orangeism. 

The oath taken by an Orangeman in entering the 
Order can leave no room for doubt as to the aim of their 
organization : unrelenting persecution and, if possible, 
entire extermination of all who belong to the Church of 
Rome. 

They swear to defend and support to the utmost of 
their power, the King and all the heirs of the Crown, so 
long as he or they sicpport the Protestant ascendancy. 

They also most solemnly swear that they will endeavor 
to shed the last drop of Catholic hlood. 

Meditate carefully over the above, French Canadians 



— 170 — 

and Irish Catholics, and see, if jou can, what you must 
expect in the future from a Gov^ernment and a dynasty 
that can accept such an allegiance, and protect those who 
take it, in the name of God ! 

There is only one solution to this incredible but un- 
deniable state of affairs : Cholera, small-pox, mortal fev- 
ers, deadly pestilence may ravage your population and 
carry away by the hundreds your wives, your mothers, 
your children. Fire can destroy in a few moments your 
homes and your property. Famine may knock at your 
doors and starvation enter your houses; but your most 
dreadful enemy, whose blood-thirsty hatred and merci- 
less execration will never cease to pursue you, is the 
Orangeman, who will endeavor to shed, in the name of 
his God the last drop of your Catholic blood. It is that 
incurable and pitiless ulcer of humanity against which 
you must guard yourselves and those whom you love. 

" Forgive our Trespasses as we Forgive those who Tres- 
pass against us." 

This divine prayer was taught to you by your mothers, 
you teach its sublimity to your children, and while 
every evening you and yours let your christian souls ask 
your God to extend his pardon over your enemies, the 
sworn wolves of William of Orange are grinding their 
teeth, the disciples of Orangeism are loading their guns 
and sharpening their daggers in order to be ready to fall 



171 



npon you at the first opportunity, and rest assured that 
they will then do all in their power to shed the last drop 
of your hlood. 

Canadian Catholics, whatever you may be, French or 
Irish, remember Kiel and beware of what the Orange 
tigers are keeping in store for you ! 



At the moment when I was about finishing this unpre- 
tentious book, I read the following in one of the 
New York papers, and I do not think that it will be out 
of place here : 

'' Several papers have affirmed recently that Kiel is of 
Irish origin, 

" This fact is perfectly established by Abbe Tanguay, 
author of the Dictioiinaire Genecdogique. 

" Here is what the distinguished Abbe says : 

" An emigrant named Jean Baptiste Reel (alias Kiel) 
" son of Jean Baptiste Riel and Louise Lafontaine (Foun- 
"tain) was born in the parish of Saint Pierre, city of Lim- 
" erick, Ireland, and married, at He Dupas, on the 21st 
"of January, 1704, Louise, daughter of Frangois Cottn. 

" Their eldest son, Jean Baptiste, was baptized on 
" June 1 2th, 1705, at the same place, and married in 1732, 
"Marie Louise Frapier, he had been nick-named 'Ire- 
"land.' From this marriage were born several children, 
"among whom Jean- Baptiste, who married in 1782, Mary 
" Collin. Several of their children were born and baptiz- 
" ed at St. Cuthbert, Berthier Co., Canada. 



— 172 — 

"Their son, Jean Baptiste, emigrated to the [N'ortli- 
" west, where he married a French Half-breed girL She 
" made him the father of a son who was baptized under the 
" name of Louis. 

" This Louis married Julie Lagimodiere, and their son 
" was the same Louis Keil, the leader of the last insurrec" 
" tion." 

I shall, of course, leave the responsibility of the above 
statement to the learned Abbe Tanguaj, I only reproduce 
it as worthy of notice. 

French or Irish, Kiel is a martyr, and the Canadian 
Catholics will forever remember his name and those of 
his assassins. 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



AND 



DOCUMENTARY. 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND DOCDMENTARY. 



VIII. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LOUIS DAVID RIEL 
TO 1869. 

Louis David Kiel was born in Manitoba, in 1846, from 
the marriage of Louis Eiel and Julie de Lagimodiere. 
His grandfather was a French Canadian and his grand- 
mother a " Franco- Montagnaise. " 

His father had i-eceived an elementary education of 
no mean order, and probably on that account acquired a 
marked influence amons: the French Half-breeds. 

He, Kiel's father, was for three years in the service of 
the Hudson Bay Company, but left his situation in order 
to continue his studies under the Ohlats fathers with whom 
he lived for a period of two years. Later on he came 
back to the I^orth-west and established the first flour mill 
ever known in the country. 

Louis Kiel is still remembered in Manitoba as a man 
of sound judgment, great bravery, and undoubted 
patriotism. His fondness for his family was unbounded 
and he could count his friends by the thousand, not only 
among his own people but also among the whole popula- 
tion of that vast and rich country. 



1Y6 



In 1849, the tyranny of the Hudson Bay Company's 
authorities became unbearable and ferocious. 

The Metis, who, as I have ah-eady stated, were the 
direct means of the making of the incalculable fortunes 
earned (?) by the Adventurers of England, were treated 
with utter contempt. 

The laws issued by the government of this Company 
on the traffic in furs, had been constructed in such a way 
as to keep the entire population in complete and abject 
servitude. 

The traffic with the United States was a crime of the 
worst kind and was punished unmercifully. 

The Metis who, in order to secure these furs, were 
obliged to brave all sorts of dangers, and to undergo 
indescribable privations and fatigue, were not allowed to 
sell the produce of their yearly hunting expeditions to 
any other traders but the officers of the Hudson Bay 
Company. 

The prices set for their goods were ridiculously low, 
while those they were obliged to pay for provisions and 
clothing were arbitrarily high. 

The stores were buying very cheap and selling very 
dear. A Metis was not even allowed to correspond in 
writing with any party or parties living outside of the 
British territory. 

They were obliged to deposit their letters unsealed 
and open in the stores of the Company. These letters 
were carefully perused by the chief employee before 
being forwarded to their destination. 

The government of the Hudson Bay Company went 
so far as to issue a law forbidding the Metis to wear or use 
furs in any shape or form — such rapacity will seem incre- 



— irr — 

dible, but it has nevertheless been enacted by a corpora- 
tion of adventurers whose laws and constitution were 
sanctioned and protected by the Imperial Government of 
England. 

Now, let me ask, is there any man breathing the pure 
air of Heaven, who will not shudder at the mere thought 
of such barbarity ? 

Is there any living creature of God who will cons- 
cientiously condemn the French Half-breeds for having 
tried, at the peril of their lives, to break the iron circle in 
which they lived for over a century. 

Is there a nation on the face of the earth which will 
blame these unhappy and persecuted sons of the wild prairies 
for having made a supreme effort in order to prove to civi- 
lization that although born and living in the wilderness 
of an immense and almost unknown country, they were 
nevertheless entitled to a place in the brotherhood of 
humanity. 

Louis Kiel was the first to understand that such treat- 
ment at the hands of the Hudson Bay Company was an 
outrage against common-sense and mankind. 

He refused to be convinced that the Adventurers of 
England had any right to act as law-makers, judges, and 
executioners at the same time. 

He protested boldly against a state of things which 
Avas slowly but surely making of his countrymen a 
persecuted and abject race. 

To the officers of the Company he openly denied the 
prerogative of constituting themselves absolute and 
only buyers and sellers, lawful postmasters and supreme 
rulers. 

The effects of hie protestations were soon felt all over 



— 178 — 

the country and the follo^ying episode was the beginning 
of a new epoch for the Metis : 

A French Half-breed, named Sawyer, had been arrested 
under the charge of selHng furs to some private party. 

His trial was to take place on the ITtli of May in that 
year (1849). 

On that day, and just after the judge had taken his 
seat, Kiel entered the court-room followed by a party of 
Metis. He protested against the arrest of Sawyer, and 
after giving his reasons for acting thus, he released the 
prisoner; and not satisfied with this, he and his men 
went to the Hudson Bay Company's post and compelled 
the officers to surrender the furs they had seized from 
Sawyer. 

From that day, the liberty of trade became an accom- 
plished fact, and Kiel, the father, is the man who is 
entitled to all the credit for it. 

With the example of such a father before him, it was 
but natural that Louis David Kiel be designated by his 
countrymen as their leader and the defender of their 
cause, in the insurrectional movements of 1869 and 1885. 

Bishop Alexander Tache was the first to discover that 
there was in the young Metis a visible and laudable thirst 
for study. 

It is to that distinguished and highly venerated 
prelate that Kiel owed his education. 

The most Keverend Bishop succeeded in interesting 
Madame Masson, a French-Canadian lady, mother of the 
present Governor of the Province of the Quebec, in be- 
half of the young Kiel. 

She became his " protectrice," and trough her solici- 



— 179 — 

tude and that of the worthy Bishop, Louis David Eiel 
was sent to the College of Montreal. 

During the course of his studies, he showed a strong 
liking for literature, poetry and history and he soon 
proved that he was a born orator. 

The sweetness of his dispositions made him a great 
favorite among his teachers and schoolmates, and many 
of his contemporaries now living in the Province of 
Quebec, and occupying high official or private positions, 
still remember him as an ambitious and hard-working 

o 

student. 

The death of liis father, which occurred in 1864, was 
a great blow to Louis David, and threw into his sensitive 
nature a shadow of melancholy and sadness which remain- 
ed one of his characteristics until his last day. 

His widowed mother was left with eight children to 
support, and from that moment he was considered the 
head of the family. 

Louis David Kiel returned to Manitoba in 1866, three 
years before the first rebellion. 



Before ending this biographical sketch in which I had 
an opportunity to mention again the name of Archbishop 
Tache, I ask to be permitted to state once more that the 
remarks contained in my second chapter about the 
pamphlet issued by this venerable prelate, are completely 
devoid of any intention of blaming his action. I know 
how staunch and sincere are his love and devotion for his 
people and 1 have witnesHed too many ]3i'oofs of his un- 
bounded patriotism, to think for a moment that his real 



— 180 — 

intentions in issuing the said pamphlet could be anything 
but well meant. 

My sole object in pointing out the indifference shown 
by young French Canadians in 1869, during the recruit- 
ing of the expeditionary corps, was to advocate with all 
my might the principle : that the blunders of the past 
ought to be a good lesson for the future, and that now, 
more than ever, French Canadians and Catholics of all 
nationalities in Canada will have to look sharp and be 
less indifferent, if they do not want to succumb to the 
untiring hatred of Orangeism. 

And now, a few words more before leaving my 
readers. Has the execution of Louis David Kiel pacified 
the Half-breed and Indian population ? 

Has the cold cruelty of the Government won the 
approval of the civilized world ? 

[Ro ; a thousand times, no ! 

A little less negligence, a few kind words and a wiser 
policy would have done more toward furthering peace 
and order than the bloody work accomplished by the fra- 
tricide English bayonets in the Saskatchewan. 

The members of the Ottawa Cabinet were not deserv- 
edly severe — they were awkwardly and criminally cruel. 
They thought that they could extinguish a rebellion with 
human blood. 

A near future will prove that the blood so coolly shed 
by their hands will have the same effect as coal oil on a 

BURNING FIRE ! 



181 



RIEL ON THE NORTH-WEST QUESTION. 

England has affirmed her suzerainty over the North- 
west in 1670, with the sole intention of submitting that 
vast territory and its numerous aborigines under the 
monopoly of the Company of Adventurers of the Hudson 
Bay. 

The chart of king Charles II. gave to that Company 
the privilege to make the traffic of furs in those countries, 
to the exclusion of all other people, and deprived, gratuit- 
ously, the Korth-west of its right to transact business 
with the world, and the world of its right to transact 
business with the North-west ; it frustrated the North- 
west of the advantages of universal commerce, and it 
determined the loss, to mankind in general, of the benefits 
that could be derived from trafficking with the tribes 
and colons of that great territory. 

What helped most to ruin my Indian ancestors of the 
North-west, was the fact that in becoming rich at their 
expense, and in proportion to the influence she gained 
with the English authorities, that Company became her- 
self a government of the Hudson Bay territory, and 
governed it with the sole view of satisfying her avarice 
and cupidity. 

Commercial aristocracy, backed by governmental 
power in the Company proper, made of that band of 
adventurers an ulcer, a monster which devoured the 
North-west and its immense riches in furs for more than 
half a century. 

This claim made of my country by England, in order 
to deliver it, with my forefathers, to a set of brigands. 



— 182 — 

, was on the side of England an abandonment and a 

i profanation of lier duties of suzerain. And, since the 

I history of her domination proves, in an irrecusable 

; manner, the fact that she has been guilty of such a 

criminal abandonment, I avail myself of it. I invoke 

that international treason, which she has nourished the 

! culpable growth from 1670 to 1849. I denpunce the 

system of roberry in which she has persisted during one 

hundred and seventy-nine years. I declare that England 

; has long ago foi-feited all her rights to govern the E"orth- 

west. 

I declare mv countrv free from her yoke and her 
1 tyranny, supplicating God, whom I adore most reverently, 
'; to sustain me and to sustain my declaration ; I pray man- 
; kind to .help me as much as circumstances will permit, 
j as much as Providence will enable it to do so. 
! Louis David Kiel. 



RIEL'S LETTER TO THE "IRISH WORLD." 



AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE. 

To the Citizens of the United States of America : 

Fellow-Men : — The outside world has heard but 
little of my people since the beginning of tliis war in 
the North-west Territory, and that little has been related 
by agents and apologists of the bloodthirsty British Em- 
pire. As of old, England's infernal machination of 
Falsehood has been employed to defame our character, 
to misrepresent our motives, and to brand our soldiers 



183 ~ 



and allies as cruel savages. These things I learn from 
American papers which come to me through the same 
channel that I send this to you. The end which our 
enemies have in view is plain. Their object is to pre- 
vent good people from extending to us their sympathy 
while they themselves may rob us in the dark and mur- 
der us without pity. 

Of one hundred or more papers that now lie in my 
tent, The Irish World, I find is the only true friend we 
have. In the columns of this far-famed journal the truth 
is fully told. England's organs in the United States and 
Canada falsely aver that my people have no grievances. 
To contradict their false statements I now write to the 
defender of the oppressed, Mr. Patrick Ford, whose Irish 
World will publish a true statement of the facts in all 
corners of the globe. 

Our lands in the North-west Territory, the possession 
of which were solemnly confirmed by the Government 
fifteen years ago, have since been torn from us and given 
to land-grabbers who never saw the country— and this 
after we had cut down forests, plucked up stumps, re- 
moved rocks, plowed and seeded the soil, and built sub- 
stantial homes for ourselves and our children. 

Nearly all the good available lands in this territory 
(as is the case with the lands east of the Kocky Mountains) 
are already in the clutches of English lords, who have 
large herds of cattle grazing thereon ; and the riches 
which these lands produce ai'e drained out of the country 
and sent over to England to be consumed by a people 
that fatten on a system that jmuperizes us. 

This wholesale robbery and burglary has been carried 
on, and is still carried on, with the connivance of accurs 



— 184 — 

ed England. The result is extermination or slavery. 
Against this monstrous tyranny we have been forced to 
rebel. It is not in human nature to quietly acquiesce in 
it. 

In their treatment of us, however, the behavior of the 
English is not singular. Follow those pirates the world 
over and you will find that everywhere and at all times 
they adopt the same tactics and operate on the same 
thievish lines. 

Ireland, India, the Highlands of Scotland, Australia, 
and the isles of the Indian Ocean — all these countries are 
the sad evidences and their native populations are the wit- 
nesses of England's land robberies. 

Even in the United States — and it is a burning shame 
for the Government and people of that great and free 
nation to have it to be said — English Lords have, within 
a few short years, grabbed territory enough to form sev- 
eral large States. Alas! for the people of your country. 
Alas ! for the Government for whose independence and 
glory the soldiers of George Washington fought bare-foot 
against the cut-throats and hell-hounds of England, — 
alas ! tliat this same evil power should be allowed to re- 
turn and reconquer so much of your nation without a 
shot being fired or even a word of protest being uttered 
in the name of the American people ! 

Your Government, which has allowed her citizens to 
be robbed of their heritage by English Lords and English 
capitalists, has also given aid and comfort to the English 
in permitting her General Howard to come to Manitoba 
and the Korth-west Territory to school the assassins that 
were sent from Toronto to murder me and my people, 
and to give the Queen's Own lessons in handling the 



— 185 — 

American Gatling gun, as well as in granting license to 
British soldiers and British ammunition intended for our 
destruction to pass over American soil. By its conduct 
in this entire business the Administration at Washino^- 
ton has made the United States tiie ally of England in 
lighting a people who were only protecting their homes 
and firesides. Does it require two powerful nations such 
as the United States and England to put down the Sas- 
katchewan rebellion ? Grover Cleveland and Secretary 
Bayard have much to answer for. 

It is now evident, as The Irish Woi'ld has charged, 
that these two high officials of the United States are 
more English than American, The animus they have 
shown towards my people and me for the past two 
months, as well as the friendship and aid they have ex- 
tended to our enemies, is but an additional confirmation 
of what has been charged against them. 

Can it be possible that the American people, or any 
considerable portion of them, have any real sympathy 
with England ? Have they not read, has it not come 
down to them from bleeding sire to son, of the crimes 
and atrocities and fiendish cruelties which that wicked 
power inflicted upon their patriotic fathers during the 
Bevolution? Of the American towns wantonly given 
to the flames by order of English commanders, of the 
horrors of the English prison ships, and the barbarities 
imposed by the English upon American prisoners of 
war ? Does not American history record the outrages 
perpetrated by England upon American commerce and 
American citizenship which led to the war of 1812? 
And is it not still fresh in the memory of men of middle 
age, how, when the Republic was engaged in a life-and- 



I " '• — 1S6— ,., 

death struggle with the slaveholder's rebellion, England 
gloated over your troubles and sent her sympathy and 
her money and her armed ships to your enemies to 
destroy your Union and to bring the American name 
into disgrace before the world i Generous minds forgive 
injuries, but spaniels lick the hand that smites them. 
The Americans are not spaniels ; but, there are sycophants 
and lickspittles in America, nevertheless, and those base 
natures are to the honest people of to-day what the 
Tories were to the honest and patriotic people of a 
century ago. They are not Americans. 

A word here to the French and Irish of Canada, 
and I am done : I beg and pray that they will not 
allow themselves to be induced by any threats or by 
any blandishments to come out against us. Our cause 
is just, and therefore no just man of any race or 
nationality ought to stand opposed to us. The enemies 
who seek our destruction are strangers to justice. They 
are cruel, treacherous, and bloody. And yet, like the 
tiger, they are only obeying the instincts of their nature. 
But for the Irish people, who for centuries have been 
robbed and massacred and hunted from their island 
home by the English, and whose good name is reviled 
by the English in all lands, or for the Canadian French, 
who are subjected to the grossest and most ruffianly 
abuse from the same, to aid in any way these enemies 
would be not only wrong but stupid and unnatural. 

In a little while it will be all over. We may fail. 
But the rights for which we contend will not die. A 
day of reckoning will come to our enemies and of 
jubilee to my people. The hated yoke of English 
domination and arrogance will be broken in this land, 



187' 



and the long-suffering victims of their injustice will, 
with God's blessing, re-enter into the peaceful enjoyment 
of their possessions. 

Louis RlEL. 



Batoche, N.-W. T., May 6, 1885. 



RIEL'S LAST LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 

Last wishes of the fallen hero. His tender fareicell to 
his mother. A great jpatriot. A derated son. A 
loving husband and a fond father. 

My Dear Mother — I received your letter of bene- 
diction, and yesterday, Sunday, I asked Pere Andre to 
place it upon the altar during the celebration of mass in 
order that 1 might be held under the shadow of its bless- 
ing. I asked him afterward to place his hands upon 
my head that I might worthily i-eceive it, as I could not 
attend at Church, and he thus had diffused upon me the 
graces of mass, with its abundance of spiritual and tem- 
poral good. To my spouse, to my children, my brother 
and sister-in-law and other relatives, who are all very 
dear to me, I say farewell. 

Dear mother, it is the prayer of your eldest son that 
your prayers and beseechings in his behalf ascend to the 
throne of Jesus Christ, to Mary and to St. Joseph, my 
good protector, and that the mercy and abundant con- 
solation of God till you and my wife, children and other 
relatives with all spiritual blessings from generation unto 



— 188 — 

generation, on account of the great blessing you "have 
poured upon mjself ; on yourself especially for having 
been a good mother to me, that your faith and hope, 
your charity and example be as the tree laden with excel- 
lent fruit in present and in future, and when your last 
day arrives that the good God shall be so much pleased 
with your pious spirit that he will bear it from earth 
upon the wings of angels. It is now two o'clock in the 
morning of my last day on earth, and Pere Andre has 
told me to be ready for the grand event. I listened to 
him, and am prepared to do everything according to his 
advice and earnest recommendation. God holds me in 
his hand to keep in peace and sweetness as oil held in a 
vessel which can not be disturbed. I do what I can to 
keep myself ready for any event, keeping myself calm in 
accordance with the pious exhortations of the venerable 
Archbishop Bourget. 

Yesterday and to-day I prayed to God to reasure you 
and send you all sweet consolation, and in order that your 
heart may not be disturbed by anxiety and trouble I am 
brave, and I kiss you all with affection. I embrace you 
as a dutiful son, and my dear wife, I embrace you as a 
Christian husband, according to the conjugal spirit of the 
Catholic union. I embrace you, children, in the breadth 
of divine mercy, and my brother and sisters-in-law and 
all relatives and friends, 1 embrace yon with all the good 
feeling of which my heart is capable. 

Dear mother, I am your affectionate, obedient and 
submissive son, 

Loris David Kiel. 

Prison of Regina, Kovember 16, 1885. 



— 189 — 



LOUIS RIEL'S WILL, 



A PATHETIC TESTAMENT— HE LEAVES NOT GOLD BUT GOOD 
ADVICE TO HIS CHILDREN. 

Following is a copy of Kiel's will. 

In prison at Regina. 

Testament of Louis David Kiel. 

] make my testament according to counsel given me 
by Rev. Father Alexis Andre, my charitable confessor 
and most devoted director of my conscience. 

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost, I declare that this is my testament, that I 
have written it freely in the fullest possession of my 

faculties. 

Men having iixed the 10th of November next as that 
of my death, and as it is possible the sentence will be 
executed, I declare beforehand that my submission to the 
orders of Providence is sincere. My will is ranged Avith 
entire liberty of action, under the influence of the Divine 
Grace and our Lord Jesus Christ, on the side of the Roman 
Catholic and Apostolic Church. I was born in it and it 
is by it that I have been led into the way of grace. It is 
by her also that I have been regenerated. 

I have retracted what I have said and professed con- 
trary to her teaching, and I retract it again. I ask par- 
don for the scandal I have caused. I do not wish that 
there should be a difference between me and the priest- 
hood of Jesus Christ as great of the point of a needle. If 
I should die on the lOth of the month— that is to say, m 
four days— I wish to do all in my power with the divine 
succors' of my Saviour to die in perfect harmony with my 



— 190 — 

Creator, my Eedeenier, mj Sanctifier, and with the Holy 
Cathohc Church, and if my God wishes He will accord 
me the gift inestimable of life, I wish on my side to 
mount the scaffold, and to resign myself to 'the will and 
end of Providence by holding myself apart, as I am to- 
day, from all earthly things, for I understand the most 
certain means of doing well, and of having durable fruits 
is to practice and perform all enterprises in a manner 
entirely disinterested, without passion, without excite- 
ment, entirely in sight of God while loving your neigh- 
bor, your friend and your enemy as yourself. For the 
love of God. 

I thank my good and tender mother for having loved 
me, and for having loved me with a love so Christian. 
I demand of her pardon for all the faults of which I have 
been guilty against the love, the respect and obedience 
that I owe her. I beg of her to pardon also the faults 
that I have committed against my duty toward my well 
loved and regretted father, and toward his venerable 
memory. 

I thank my brothers and sisters for their great love 
and kindness to me. I also ask their pardon for my 
faults of all kinds and for all the errors for which I have 
been culpable in their eyes. 

1 thank my relatives and the relatives of my wife for 
always being so good and gentle to me, in particular my 
affectionate and well loved father-in-law, my mother-in- 
law, my brothers-in-law, and my sisters-in-law. I beg of 
them also to pardon whatever has not been right in me, 
all that has been evil in my conduct. 

I give the hand of true friendship to my friends 
of all ages, of all ranks, of all conditions, and of all 



-191 — 

positions. I thank them for the services they have 
rendered me. Particularly am I grateful toward my 
friends who have deigned to busy themselves with my 
affairs in public both on this and the other side of the 
line. To the oblates of Marie Immaculate, the Society 
of St. Sulpice, to the Grey Nuns for all the good and 
kindness 1 have received from them from my infancy I 
return them my thanks. 

I have benefactors on the other side of the line, 
friends whose goodness to me has been beyond measure. I 
beg of them to accept my thanks, and to charitably excuse 
my defects, and if my conduct has in any way been offen- 
sive to them, whether in smal' or great matters, I beg of 
them to pardon me while taking into account the excuses 
that may be in my favor as to the real sum of my faults. 
" mce capabilities " I have. They will have goodness 
to forgive them all before God and man. 

I pardon with all my heart, with all my mind, 
with all my force, with all my soul, those who have 
caused me chagrin, who have given me pain, who have 
done me harm, and have persecuted me, who hoA^e without 
any reason made war on me foi^ five years, who have 
gvmnme the sernUance^^j^ial^who have condemned 
me to ^Ti^ETandif they really mean to give me to 
death 1 pardon them, this as I ask God to pardon me 
all my offences entirely in the name of Jesus Christ. 

I thank my wife for having been so good and char- 
itable to me, for the part she has so patiently taken in 
my painful w^orks and difficult enterprises. I pray her 
to pardon me the sadness I have voluntarily and in- 
voluntarily caused, I recommend to her the care of her 
little children— to bring them up in a Christian manner, 



— 192 — 

with particular attention to all that relates to good 
thoughts, good actions, and good companions. 

I desire that my children may be brought up with 
great care in all that belongs to obedience to the church, 
their masters and superiors. I urge them to show the 
greatest respect, the greatest submission, and the most 
complete affection toward their good mother. I do not 
leave to my children gold or silver, but I beg God in 
His infinite pity {Je siipplie les entraiUes de la mise- 
ricorde de Dieii) to till my mind and my heart with the 
truly paternal blessing which I desire to give them. 
Jean, mon fils, Marie-Angelique, ma Jille^ I bless you 
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost, so that you may be attentive to know the will of 
God and faithful to accomplish it in all piety and in all 
sincerity ; that you may practice virtue solidly, but simply, 
without parade or ostentation ; that you do the most good 
possible while holding to yourself, without being wanting 
to others within the limits of just obedience to the ap- 
proved bishops and the priests, especially to your bishop 
and your confessor. I bless you that your death may be 
sweet, edifying, good and holy in the eye of the Church 
and in that of Jesus Christ, our Lor<l, Amen. 

I bless you in fine that you may seek and find the 
Kingdom of God, and that you may have moreover 
rest in Jesus, in Mary and in Joseph. Pray for me. 

I leave my testament to the Rev. Pere Andre, my 
confessor. I pray my friends everywhere to hold the name 
of Pere Andre side by side with my own. I love Father 
Andre. 

Louis David Riel, 

Son of Louis Kiel and of Julie de Lagimodiere, 



A POSTSCRIPTUM. 



A chapter is missing in this work. Without it The 
Truth about Kiel would be incomplete. 

By right, that chapter should cover a large number of 
pages, and then it would but imperfectly demonstrate the 
zeal, courage and abnegation of a group of patriotic 
and intelligent men who foresaw, and predicted as it were, 
the still incredible double-faced and cowardly policy of 
the Ottawa Cabinet. 

With limited means but with unlimited patriotism, 
these brave and righteous men banded together and set to 
work to save Kiel's life and theii- country from the inde- 
lible stigma the Orange crime of Regina has branded 
upon its forehead ! 

For more than five months these patriotic men worked 
like beavers to wrest from the dastardly foe the head upon 
which an arrogant and despicable oligarchy hath set its 
mind of sacrificing to its intolerance and bigotry. 

When the Liberal press took in hand the defence of 
Eiel, the tools of the Ottawa Government would say 
to the timid : " Be careful, don't mix yourselves with 
" this liberal agitation. There is a political scheme un- 
" derlying all this ; the Liberals know full well that Kiel will 
" not be hung, and they are making political capital out of 
'^ the necessary cautiousness and tardiness of the Govern- 



194 



" ment, who is forced to such a course in order to keep 
" tlie Orange faction in the traces." 

When generous and. disinterested citizens were remark- 
ing that money would be necessary to pay the legal ex- 
penses of Kiel's case, those same governmental tools would 
say fi'om door to door, in the streets, in the parlors and 
even in the counting-rooms: " Why subscribe ? Has not 
" the Government promised to defray the necessary costs ? 
'* Did not Sir Langevin made a solemn pledge to have a 
" medical commission appointed, and is not all this equi- 
" valent to an official guarantee that Kiel will not be 
"hung?" 

Furthermore, when a Committee, composed of men 
from all political parties, was formed, those very same 
tools again attempted by all means to throw cold water 
upon the movement. " Be careful, " they would say, 
" do not unwittingly embarrass the action of the Govern - 
'* ment. Th^ position of the Ministers is rather delicate. 
" The Confederation has within its borders other elements 
" than FrenclrCanadians, and since the Ministers are set 
" upon saving Kiel, they ought to be left to choose their 
" own good time and means." 

Fortunately that there was a group of intelligent and 
brave men who saw clearly through all this hypocrisy, and 
were determined upon saving Kiel if unalloyed devotedness 
could accomplish that object. The following Committee 
was formed in Montreal to receive subscriptions and make 
all necessary arrangements to organize the defence of 



— 195 



Kiel, every name upon that Committee should be honored 
by all those who prize nobleness of aim and disinterest- 
edness of motives. 

Following is the Roll of Honor : 

L. O. David, President ; Chas. C. Delorimier, 1st 
Vice-President; R. Prefontaine, 2d Vice-President; 
Charles Champagne, Secretary ; A. E. Poirier, Assis- 
tant-Secretary ; Jeremie Perrault, Treasurer; J. O. 
Dupuis, Assistant-Treasurer. 

Executive CommiUee.—U. Laflamme ; II. C. St. 
Pierre ; Alphonse Christin ; Pierre Rivard ; E. L. 
Ethier; Barney Tansey ; E. A. Derome ; Georges 
DuHAMEL ; Jean-Mar^ Papineau ; G. Phaneuf ; J. 
O. Villeneuve; A. Ouimet, and J.-Bte. Rouillard. 

Many other public-spirited men also lent untiring help 
to the generous movement. Impossible to mention tbem 
all, but among the principals are the Honorables Mercier, 
:5eafbien, Amyot, Desjardins, Paquette, Bellerose, 
Lemieux, Eitzpatrick, Langelier, Pacaltd, Cloran of the 
Montreal Daily Post, Barry, Stevens, McShane, E. 
Tremblay and K. Globensky. 

Unsuccessful to wrest from the Ottawa Cabinet and 
the Orange faction the life of Louis Riel, and save their 
country the humiliation of a political gibbet, these men, 
however, have not left a stone unturned in order to secure 
their unselfish and noble aim, and they should be honored 
and praised for their devotion to principles of uprightness 
and humanity. 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Preface, 2 

I. — The Truth about Kiel, . . . . 17 

Can Kiel be charged with rebellion ? . . 20 

How were the Metis treated for years ? . 21 

The Provisional Government, ... 23 

The Ked Kiver expedition, ... 23 

On to them ! Kill them ! .... 25 

A pamphlet, ...... 26 

Thomas Scott, 28 

Self-defence, 29 

The troops in Manitoba, . . . .31 

Atrocities committed by the Ontario Volunteers, 33 

References, 34 

Colonel Wolseley's blunder, ... 35 

A simple question, 36 

Half-breeds dispossessed by Ontario speculators, 36 
Kiel offers his services to the Government. — 

They are accepted, .... 38 

Kiel elected at Provencher, .... 39 

The Government's cowardice, ... 39 

II. — Fifteen Years of Persecution, ... 41 

The real causes of the rebellions of 1869 and 

of 1885, 43 



197 — 



PAGE. 


1869, 


43 


1870, .... . . 


44 


Self-defence, 


46 


An infamous treachery, .... 


48 


1871, 


49 


1872, 


51 


Those Orange lambs ! 


62 


Arbitrary judicial decision, 


64 


Another amnesty, but conditioned on exile, . 


65 


What led to the rebellion of 1885, . 


66 


Kiel's happy home in Manitoba, 


69 


Kiel's persecuted countrymen beg for his aid, 


70 


The voice of patriotism, .... 


71 


An historical comparison, .... 


72 


Constitutional agitation and the right of petition 




met by muskets, 


73 


The insurrection of 1885, .... 


74 



III. — Opinion of the Press, .... 78 

Obstinacy is no substitute for honor. — iV. Y. 

Herald 79 

The American Yiew of the Kiel case. — Central 

Laio Journal^ of St. Louis, ... 80 

Kiel's blood will be on Sir John's hands. — N. Y. 

Herald, 81 

Nothing gained by hanging. — Baltimore Times, 82 
" I wish to God I could catch him ! "— A^. Y. 

Herald, 83 

Canada statesmanship at fault. — Washington 

Post, 83 



— 198 — 

PAGE. 

Will Canadians submit to such an atrocious use 

of influence ? — Nev^i York Herald^ . . 84 

Much in extenuation. — Memphis Appeal, . 85 
A costly blunder threatened. — Washington Re- 
publican, . . . . . . .85 

He will die a martyr. — Hartford Post, . 86 
Defiance of civilized sentiment. — Boston Trans- 
cript, 86 

Short- sighted policy. — A ustin Statesman (Texas), 86 

A solemn prediction. — St. Paid Globe, . 86 
The revival of race antipathy in Canada. — Neio 

York Herald, 87 

An execution which will tend to strengthen the 
movement for separation. — Freemanh Jour- 
nal, of Dublin, . ... 89 
Almost a sacred person. — Pall Mall Gazette, 90 
Love for his country. — London Echo, . 90 
A National Disgrace. — Toronto Globe, . . 90 
The Press of the Province of Quebec, . 91 
HEvenenient, of Quebec, ... 92 
La Presse, of Montreal, ... 93 
Le Monde, of Montreal, .... 93 
H Etendard, of Montreal, ... 94 
E Electetir, of Quebec, .... 94 
Highly impolitic. — London Daily Neins, . 94 
The tribute of a paid tool. — Quebec Chronicle, 94 
The Paris press, M. Kochefort in E hitransigeant, 95 

Le Figaro, of Paris, 95 

The wedge of discord driven deeply into the 

body politicy. — Telegraph, .... 96 
Sir John's Motives. — The editor of Le Courrier 

des Etats- Unis, of ISTew York, . . 98 



— 199 — 

PAGE. 

Will there be another insurrection? — New Haven 

Register^ 99 

A legal murder. — Hartford Post^ . . 100 

The execution of Riel. — JVew York Times, . 100 
The execution of Kiel. — JVeiv York Star, . 101 

The Canadian hanging. — New York World, . 102 
Canada repudiates the crime. — The Montreal 

Daily Post, 104 

The duty of the hour. — Catholic Record, of 

London, Ontario, 110 

Misgovernment and Hebellion. — The Tr^ieWit- 

ness and Catholic Chronicle of Montreal, 113 
The situation in Ontario. — The Irish Canadian, 

of Toronto, Ontario, 116 

A foul deed. — The Catholic Record, of London, 

Ontario, 118 

Irish sympathy for Riel in New York, . . 124 



lY. — HisTOEicAL Reminiscences, . . . 125 

What the Figaro (Paris), says, . . .127 

A Courageous rascal, . . . . . 130 

The Execution, from the Leader of Regina, 131 



Y. — Three Traitors, 137 

Love of Power above love of country, . .139 
Cameleonic criminality, .... 140 

A true bill, 146 

Adding cowardly insult to criminal injustice, 149 



— 200 — 

PAGE. 

yi. — Condemned even Before Tried, . .153 

" Oh ! that Riel, if I can ever get him in my 

power!" 153 

The question of the hour, . . . .157 



VII. — Orangeism, 161 

Oath and obligation of an Orangeman, . . 163 

Orangemen's orginal oath, . . . .165 

Original test, ...... 165 

Amended oath of Orangemen, . . .166 

Amended test, 167 

Obligation of an Orangeman, . . . 168 
" Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who 

trespass against us," . . . . 170 



YIII. —Biographical and Documentary, . . 173 

Biographical sketch of Louis David Eiel to 1869, 175 
Kiel on the North-west Question, . . 181 

Eiers last letter to the Irish World, . .182 
Riel's last letter to his mother, . . . 187 

Louis Kiel's Will, 189 

A Postscripttim, 193 



Price, 50 cents. By Mail, 56 cents. 



THE 



GIBBET OF REGINA 



THE TRUTH ABOUT RIEL 



SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD AND HIS CABINET 
BEFORE PUBLIC OPINION • 

BY 




Nriu ¥or3t 



THOMPSON & MOREAU, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
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1886 

For Sale by all Principal Newsdealers and Booksellers in the 
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Will be ready and on ( I |t| (3 ^) ET ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ '^^ ^^ ready and on _^— ^ 

sale in 2 weeks. ) I IH ^ ff^ Ci O O ( sale in 2 weeks. C^. 

A free translation of ** The Gibbet of Regina,** in the French l^^nguage. 

LE GIBET DE REGINA.— La Verite sur Riel — Sir John A. MacDonald et le Cabinet d'Otta- 

wa devant I'Opinion Publique. — Par Un Homme bien Renseigne. New York : Thompson & Morem, 
Imprimeurs-Editeurs, 51 et 53 Maiden Lane, 1886. 

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newsde^rs and booksellers. THOMPSON & MOREAU, Publishers, 51 & 53 Maiden Lane, New York. 

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nola. New York : Imprenta de Thompson y Moreau, 51 y 53 Maiden Lane. 

{Spanish Edition). — Large Square IGmo. 52 pp. of text, with illustrations, toned paper, gilt-edges. — Edition 
de luxe. Cloth, $1.50. THOMPSON & MOREAU, Publishers, 51 & 53 Maiden Lane, New York. 

RITM03. — Por J. A. Perez Bonalde. Imprenta de Thompson v Moreau, 51 Maiden Lane, Nueva-York. 
{Spanish Edition.) Square duodecimo. Pp. xxvi-320, with Author's portrait. Cloth, $1.25. 

THOMPSON & MOREAU, Piblishers, 51 & .53 Maiden Lane, New York. 



EL POEMA DEL NIAGARA.— Por J. A. Perez Bonalde. Segunda edicion. Nueva-York: Imprenta de 
TiioMi'SON V Moreau, 1883. 

(Spanish Edition.) — 16mo. Pp. xxviii — 31. Toned paper. Illustrated. Paper cover, 50 cents. 

THOMPSON & MOREAU, Publishers, 51 y 53 Maiden Lane, New York. 



THOMPSON & MOREAU, 

Nos. 51 & 53 MAIDEN LANE, New York, U. S. A. 

We execute all kinds of Printing in Letter-press and Lithography: Books, Reviews, Newspapers, Catalogues, 
Prospc':tuses, Price-Lists, and all descriptions of Printing for Professional and Commercial circles. 

Our establishment is especially organized for Translating and Printing in Foreign Languages. We translate 
and prim in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Italian, German, Dutch, Flemish, &c., &c. 

The only Printing' Establishment 

on this continent where several foreign languages are concurrently printed with elegance and correctness. 

Estimates furnished. Address THOMPSON &l MOREAU, Printers and 
Lithographers, Nos. 5 1 & 53 Maiden Lane, New 'Vork. 



